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HOME, 
 
 OR 
 
 THE IRON RULE 
 
 A DOMESTIC STORY. 
 
 BY SARAH STICKNEY, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 'THE POETRY OF LIFE;" " PICTURES OF PRIVATE LIFE, &C. 
 
 "There is a great deal of difference between a good man and a good 
 father : I have known bad men who excelled my father as much in 
 parental care, as he was superior to them in real virtue." 
 
 Lord Lyttletox. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. L 
 
 LONDON 
 SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET 
 
 1836. 
 
Stevens and Pardon, Printers, 37, Bell Yard, Temple Bar. 
 

 HOME, 
 
 OR 
 
 THE IRON RULE 
 
 ^ 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 "When shall we go away from this dull 
 place, I wonder," said Elliott Lee, a fine 
 . high-spirited youth, just ten years old, to his 
 ^ mother, who vainly endeavoured to recom- 
 ^mend the patient endurance of a long-promised 
 ^ visit to her friends, — the Greys of Welbourne. 
 tin "We shall leave on Tuesday morning," 
 ^ said his mother ; ' ' Will that satisfy you ?" 
 ^ " Not at all," replied the disconsolate boy, 
 
 ^ " for to-morrow is Sunday, the day we spend 
 
 -^ 
 
 ^ so happily at home ; and here, I suppose, we 
 ■J 
 
 S VOL. I. B 
 
2 HOME, OR 
 
 shall all have to sit still, on high stools, 
 without backs ; for Mary tells me, they are 
 not even allowed to run on Sundays." 
 
 In spite of his discontent, Elliott could not 
 help laughing at the idea of a family of six 
 children, restrained from running, through 
 the whole of one day ; but his mirth was pru- 
 dently checked, by his mother reminding him 
 how much happier, and better it was to try to 
 find out some good in the peculiarities of our 
 friends, than to laugh at, and despise them. 
 
 " But, where can be the good," asked the 
 querulous boy, " of sitting still all Sunday, as 
 if our limbs were not given us to be used ?" 
 
 " When you have had as much experience 
 in the management of children, as those whom 
 you are so ready to condemn," replied Mrs. 
 Lee, "you will know that a great deal of 
 violence, disorder, and riot, when inquired 
 into, is apt to be excused by the answer, ' I 
 was only running ;' and this has most probably 
 led to the adoption, in many schools and 
 
THE IRON RULE. O 
 
 serious families, of the rule you think so use- 
 less and absurd : just as many laws are neces- 
 sarily laid down for the restraint of the public 
 as a body, which would never have been needed 
 for individuals living separately." 
 
 " But when I have children to manage," 
 said Elliott, little reconciled to the state of 
 things around him, "I will make them love 
 order, and quiet, and obedience, and then they 
 may run on Sundays, and commit no sin." 
 
 " You will do the wisest thing in the world, 
 my dear, if you do this," said Mrs. Lee, kiss- 
 ing the cheek of her son ; ' ' and now go to 
 your pillow, and think of to-morrow morning 
 — that however the institution of the sabbath 
 may be abused, or misinterpreted, through the 
 ignorance or prejudice of mankind, it is not 
 the less incumbent upon those who think they 
 see more clearly, so to occupy this day, as to 
 promote the glory and honour of a gracious 
 Creator, whose service is never faithfully per- 
 formed when we forget to cultivate feelings of 
 
 b2 
 
4 HOME, OR 
 
 good will and charity towards our fellow crea- 
 tures. Now go, my love. Good night, once 
 more ; and let to-morrow morning find you less 
 disposed to pry into the faults and failings of 
 the kind friends around you." 
 
 Elliott bid his mother good night, and 
 turned away ; but ere he left the room he 
 could not help murmuring, that he did not 
 think they were so very kind. 
 
 " Elliott, for shame," said his mother in her 
 sternest voice. " Are we not daily giving 
 trouble to the whole family, and poor Mrs. 
 Grey so ill — and did not Mary run all the way 
 to the village the other day, to bring you a 
 fishing line, because Allan had broken yours ?" 
 
 *' Oh yes, mother, I had forgotten Mary; 
 she is always kind." 
 
 ''And Allan?" 
 
 " He is kind too, but so fretful he makes me 
 miserable." 
 
 " Take care, Elliott, that you do not make 
 your mother miserable too, by this discontented 
 
THE IRON RULE. O 
 
 temper. Go and pray to God before you 
 sleep, to give you a heart to feel and adore his 
 goodness." 
 
 *' Mother," said Elliot, " I never leave you 
 while you speak to me in this cold sad voice." 
 Nor was it long before Mrs. Lee was made to 
 smile again ; and when she bid her son good 
 night for the third time, it was with earnest 
 protestations on his part, that he Avould endea- 
 vour to look on the bright side of things, and 
 to think that other people might mean as well, 
 if they did not always act as wisely as his 
 mother. 
 
 When the morning came, however, Mrs. Lee 
 was a little puzzled how to reconcile her pre- 
 conceived ideas of the proper occupation of the 
 sabbath, with the manner in which it was spent 
 by her friends. Almost all the members of the 
 family dreaded, and some loathed, its strict- 
 ness, its monotony, and its dull dead calm ; 
 and therefore all took advantage of the pro- 
 longed slumbers of Mr. Grey, to extend their 
 
6 HOME, OR 
 
 owJi to the latest period his discipline would 
 allow. Then followed the struggle so fatal to 
 domestic peace — the struggle against time, pro- 
 ducing a scene of confusion, hurrying, and 
 discord ; with blame thrown here and there ; 
 harsh words bandied to and fro ; and servants, 
 and those who could not or dared not defend 
 themselves, left smarting under a sense of 
 suffering and wrong; in order that a decent 
 procession might be seen in due time moving 
 under the banners of religion to the house of 
 God. 
 
 It was a sight half comic, half melancholy, 
 to see the poor little Greys in their nursery, 
 thrust from one impatient hand to another, 
 screaming under their hasty ablutions, and 
 smarting from the violence of their tumultuous 
 toilet — some of the most daring mopping and 
 mowing at their persecutors, and then in a • 
 moment, at the sound of an imperious bell, 
 stealing silently down the stairs, and along the 
 hall into their father's presence; where with 
 
THE IRON RULE. 7 
 
 sleek hair, and features as inexpressive as 
 those on their china cups, they sat like moving 
 but insensible figures, so constructed as to per- 
 form the functions of humanity, without its 
 enjoyments or its pains. 
 
 Stephen Grey, the father of this promising 
 family, was a man who gravely and thought- 
 fully studied the laws of his country, its politics, 
 and the religion of his forefathers ; he had 
 even obtained a smattering of philosophy under 
 some of its most practical forms ; but of the 
 study of the human heart he had scarcely con- 
 descended so much as to think. He loved 
 his children, because they were his own ; he 
 determined to make them good citizens, be- 
 cause it was decent and politic to be so ; and 
 good Christians, let us hope for a better reason. 
 In business, his alacrity, promptness, and 
 ability, were such as to render his influence 
 extensive ; while in his household, the will of 
 the master was law. Whatever he chose to 
 plan, or put in execution, passed without ques- 
 
8 HOME, OR 
 
 tion or comment, unless behind the scenes; 
 for like FalstafF he refused to tell his reasons 
 on compulsion, and was equally impervious to 
 every other mode of attack. If in this respect 
 however, he resembled the jolly knight, it 
 must be acknowledged that the instance stood 
 alone ; for in mind, person, and general bear- 
 ing, he might be concisely described as the 
 direct opposite of that laughter-loving hero. 
 His light blue eyes were seldom known to 
 deviate from their impenetrable look of glassy 
 coldness, and when they did, it was to be dark- 
 ened by a frown, not animated by a gleam of 
 light. Over his pale high forehead, divided 
 across the middle by two rigid lines completely 
 parallel, rested a few locks of thin fair hair, 
 combed smoothly oftener than the day, and 
 shorn of their exuberance whenever they were 
 felt to wave in the wind, or resist the pressure 
 of the composing hand. 
 
 A smile has destroyed the harmony of many 
 a face, but with Stephen Grey it was not so. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 9 
 
 On the very few occasions when this variation 
 of his features appeared, his smile was noted 
 as being so entirely free from all light, gross, 
 and even sinister expression, as to correspond 
 entirely with his upright, strong, unvarying 
 character : just as a gleam of sunshine in pas- 
 sing over the rugged mountain, only serves to 
 reveal more clearly its hardness, its sterility, 
 and its strength. 
 
 It need scarcely be added, that the words of 
 Stephen Grey were few ; for never did any 
 human being successfully aspire to be dignified 
 and important, without practising, as if by a 
 kind of instinct, the art of speaking little, and 
 of so modifying that little, that the variation of 
 the simplest tone or gesture, shall mark it with 
 more emphasis, than the elaborate discourse of 
 less weighty men. Indeed , there is some reason 
 for suspecting, that in such tones and gestures 
 consist the mystery of greatness; for, repeat 
 what a man of this stamp has said, and it fre- 
 quently amounts to nothing ; but listen, and 
 
 b3 
 
IX) HOME, OR 
 
 observe the imperative movement of the head, 
 the lips compressed as if the bursting forth of 
 an unguarded or extraneous word would pro- 
 duce convulsions in the mighty frame ; and, 
 deep into your stricken soul will sink the 
 various intonations of the voice uttering sounds 
 whose meaning beggars that of words, from 
 the shrill rebuke, through all the gradations 
 which denote contempt, down to the low deep 
 growl of disapprobation. 
 
 We often shrink away wounded and irri- 
 tated from the presence of such a person, 
 yet unable to say why ; for if we would recall 
 his words, merely as words, they tell for no- 
 thing ; while as indications of the speaker's 
 meaning, with all their inimitable accompa- 
 ninrents, they have told more, a thousand fold, 
 then we wished either to know or feel. 
 
 Of this class of lancinating speakers was 
 Stephen Grey ; and yet he spared his neighbour 
 when absent, and never dealt in idle gossip. 
 His forte was to lash the sore, and he did it in 
 
THE IRON RULE. 11 
 
 such a way as left no possibility of appeal. 
 Too haughty for contest, he seldom brought 
 forward a direct charge ; but in common con- 
 versation he could leave his sting, and pass on, 
 without noticing the wound, or explaining why 
 it was inflicted. It is but charitable to suppose 
 that more than half the pain he gave was unin- 
 tentional, for he knew nothing of the peculiar 
 feelings of those around him ; and thus often 
 punished where he meant to please, but seldom 
 pleased where it was his wish to punish. He 
 believed that all human beings were to be 
 governed by the same iron rule, and that the 
 errors of all might be corrected by the same 
 chastisement. The principle upon which he 
 maintained his authority was that of implicit 
 obedience ; but he overlooked the most impor- 
 tant part of moral government, the necessity of 
 making obedience a matter of choice, and not 
 of compulsion. Had Stephen Grey permitted 
 the good- will he really felt for his fellow crea- 
 tures, sometimes to appear before the eyes of 
 
12 HOME, OR 
 
 men, more especially had he occasionally been 
 known to sacrifice his own personal gratifica- 
 tion for that of others, he might have won 
 more affection from the warm young hearts 
 around him ; but it is not in human nature to 
 love long or consistently, the being who never 
 makes any sacrifice of self, or who never ex- 
 hibits such natural signs of tenderness as create 
 a bond of protection and dependence between 
 the powerful and the weak. 
 
 Let who would be sick, or sorry, around the 
 board or the hearth of Stephen Grey, his was 
 the choice portion, and the warmest place. 
 Not but that these privileges would have been 
 willingly conceded to him as a right ; but his 
 manner was one that conveyed the idea of 
 seizing rather than receiving ; and it is wonder- 
 ful the difference these two ideas produce in 
 the feelings of the party whose place it is to 
 resign. 
 
 Yet with all these alarming peculiarities, 
 Stephen Grey was a good neighbour, a lover of 
 
THE IRON RULE. 13 
 
 peace, an impartial judge, a powerful defender 
 of the injured, and in short, a man who main- 
 tained both in his private and public life, a cha- 
 racter of the most scrupulous integrity, and 
 independence. Indeed this feeling of indepen- 
 dence was carried to such an extreme in all his 
 pecuniary affairs, that it became questionable 
 whether money-making was not the primary 
 object of his existence ; not certainly, for the 
 purpose of hoarding, for he was penurious in 
 nothing but his domestic management. Here 
 the same rule pervaded the kitchen, the par- 
 lour, and the school room, where industry — 
 that is the industry of turning every effort and 
 every talent into gold, was established as the 
 cardinal virtue. " How much will it save," 
 or " how much will it cost," was the universal 
 interlude between every childish petition and 
 its invariable denial ; and as the expenses of 
 clothing and education increased with his 
 children's growth, he marked their necessities 
 
14 HOME, OR 
 
 with as many reproaches as if it had been 
 unnatural to grow, or a crime to learn. 
 
 Nor were the religious observances of this 
 family more tempered with the leaven of hu- 
 manity. There was no pleasure, no congenia- 
 lity, no meeting of the wants and wishes of our 
 weak nature, in the religious discipline of 
 Stephen Grey ; but public justice for the erring, 
 a sure sentence for the culprit, the strong arm 
 for the rebellious, and the same uniform law 
 of implicit obedience, from which there was 
 no appeal, for all. 
 
 It may reasonably be asked, how such a man 
 as we have here described, could ever stoop to 
 solicit the love of woman — a question which on 
 the plea of utter ignorance, the writer declines 
 to answer ; it having always appeared to her 
 one of the greatest mysteries in life, how men 
 whose very birthright seems to be the inalien- 
 able privilege of commanding, should humble 
 themselves to the common language of love ; 
 
THE IRON RULE. J5 
 
 yet that they do actually solicit, and not com- 
 mand, we cannot for the honour of the female 
 sex permit ourselves to doubt. And certain it 
 is, that Stephen Grey did lead to the altar a fair 
 and gentle bride, who found little difficulty in 
 conforming to the very letter of her vow. It 
 is true she was hardly prepared for all that 
 followed ; for being considered merely as a piece 
 of domestic machinery, whose office was to 
 keep the rest of the household furniture in 
 order ; she was not prepared to have all her 
 womanish wishes thwarted as if for very pas- 
 time, or to bring up children whose infantine 
 caresses should never meet a father's tender- 
 ness ; and for some time she persisted in intro- 
 ducing them occasionally to his notice. When 
 they looked their loveliest, and sometimes 
 when her heart was lightest, she would suffer 
 them to reach so far as the sober page upon 
 which her husband's eye was fixed, while the 
 merry urchins would laugh, and crow, and 
 pat the rustling paper, until an angry growl, 
 
16 HOME, OR 
 
 or a sharp stroke upon the little rosy fingers, 
 sent both mother and child into the nursery, 
 to hide their disappointment, and their tears. 
 Here it was that Mrs. Grey learned like many 
 other weak women to seek the sympathy she 
 was denied elsewhere ; for with her servants she 
 could converse about her children, and in the 
 society of her humble friends she could freely 
 enjoy their playful prattle. 
 
 Dangerous as this system of confidence was, 
 it would have been well if the stern discipline 
 of her husband had driven the helpless wife to 
 no other resource ; but there was one more 
 lamentable means of escaping the harshness 
 she dared not brook, to which poor Mrs. Grey 
 at last descended, and that was to deceive. It 
 was not her nature, and still less her wish, but 
 she was harassed, frightened, and systemati- 
 cally denied every trifling request, merely 
 because it was a woman's ; and though she 
 could have borne all this for herself, for her 
 children she thought it not only justifiable, 
 
THE IRON RULE. 17 
 
 but meritorious to find some way of escape. 
 Hence followed the forbidden wish secretly 
 indulged ; the detected transgression covered 
 with an evasion — perhaps with more ; the un- 
 lawful treat when papa was gone from home ; 
 and all that fatal undermining of domestic 
 comfort, of social union, and of moral recti- 
 tude, so sure to follow when the wide field of 
 deception is once thrown open. 
 
 Mrs. Lee, a distant relative and early friend 
 of Stephen Grey's, saw this and trembled ; for 
 it was too late to remedy the evil. The deli- 
 cate constitution of Mrs. Grey was fast sinking 
 under her accumulated cares, and her consort 
 was too closely wedded to his favourite system 
 to listen to the voice of a woman, charmed she 
 never so wisely. 
 
 It was painfully distressing to remain inac- 
 tive, and watch the web of evil strengthening 
 around unwary feet ; but two days of her 
 visit were yet to be accomplished, and Mrs. 
 Lee determined to take advantage of the first 
 
18 HOME, OR 
 
 opportunity they might afford, of speaking 
 freely to her friends in the cause that lay 
 heavy on her heart. 
 
 The sabbath was a day she had been accus- 
 tomed to regard as peculiarly fitted for social 
 communion on subjects embracing eternal as 
 well as temporal interests, and therefore she 
 hoped that another sun would not set with- 
 out her mind being disburdened of that por- 
 tion of anxiety which prompted her to the 
 discharge of this duty, merely as such, how- 
 ever ineffectual it might prove. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 19 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The sabbath morning rose, and Elliott 
 bounded into his mother's apartment to an- 
 nounce the auspicious dawn of the day he 
 had been taught to love so well. 
 
 " The sun is bright and clear, without a 
 cloud," said he, " so that we may walk to 
 church all round by the grass lanes — and the 
 old women may put on their best cloaks with- 
 out fear of rain — and the cattle may lie down 
 in the warm sunshine — and the swallows may 
 consult about their distant flight — and the 
 autumn flowers may come forth and expand 
 themselves, as if it were summer still. Oh, 
 mother ! we only want Catherine and Her- 
 
20 HOME, OR 
 
 bert to make us quite happy on such a day 
 as this !" 
 
 " You forget, my child," said Mrs. Lee, 
 with a slight faltering of her voice, " that 
 Catherine and Herbert are not all we want 
 to make us quite happy." 
 
 " No, no," replied the boy, " I do not 
 forget that my father is on the deep sea; 
 but you sometimes look so sad and serious 
 when his name is mentioned, that I never 
 like to be the first to say how much we want 
 him home." 
 
 ** I am sad, Elliott, because it is a hard 
 thing to look round us, in the places and 
 the seasons when we should otherwise be hap- 
 piest, and miss the face we love best ; and 
 I am serious, because I feel it a great charge 
 to bring up his family without his guiding 
 and protecting care ; because I fear you will 
 not be, in all things, what he would wish to 
 find you, after a long absence ; and when I 
 think how good and kind he is — how much 
 
THE IRON RULE. 21 
 
 above all mean ambition to know, or do, or 
 be what is inconsistent with the will of 
 Heaven, I look serious, because I feel how 
 responsible I am to that Heaven for the un- 
 speakable privilege of having such an exam- 
 ple for my children, and such a friend to 
 direct and comfort me." 
 
 Elliott and his mother were ready for the 
 religious duties of the day long before the 
 rest of the family; and Mrs. Lee took that 
 opportunity, before the mind of her son was 
 distracted by the variety of excitements it was 
 apt to receive through every hour, of read- 
 ing to him from the Bible, or conversing with 
 him on the subjects with which she sought 
 to fill the first place in his thoughts ; or, if 
 he would not suffer them to do this, her hope 
 was, that they might at least be so impressed 
 upon his mind and associated with his plea- 
 sures, as ever afterwards to be recalled in 
 conjunction with some of his happiest hours. 
 
 Yes, and let man enjoy what he will in 
 
22 HOME, OR 
 
 after life, if his childhood have been blessed 
 with the care and kindness of a judicious 
 mother, there will come moments when the 
 cup of pleasure will be dashed from his lips 
 as tasteless, in comparison with those hours 
 of sweet and social intercourse, when he first 
 learned to look for a pervading Spirit in the 
 realms of nature — to w^elcome all the ani- 
 mated and joyous creatures of earth as 
 members of his own wide brotherhood, and 
 to hail the beams of morning as pledges of 
 the inexhaustible beneficence, which created 
 both life and light, and ordained them as 
 blessings to mankind. 
 
 Mrs. Lee was accustomed to spend as 
 much as she possibly could of the sabbath 
 in the society of her children, blending en- 
 joyment with instruction, and affection with 
 serious thought ; contemplating the wonders 
 of creation as well as the truths of revela- 
 tion ; leading the unsophisticated and curious 
 mind to a full and unreserved development. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 23 
 
 not only of its natural faculties, but of the 
 crude notions formed upon its limited expe- 
 rience ; encouraging the timid in their hesi- 
 tating obedience to the claims of duty; by 
 adapting herself to the feelings and tem- 
 pers of those around her, drawing them on 
 to a fuller examination and confession of 
 their motives of action, as well as their gene- 
 ral views of the great principles of Christian 
 life and conduct ; and, finally, pouring into 
 the softened and conciliated soul a foretaste 
 of that blessed peace, whose fruition is the 
 reward of the faithful. 
 
 It was on these days that the errors of the 
 past week used to be confessed, examined, 
 and pointed out as warnings for the next ; 
 that the speculative inquirer used to find a 
 full and patient hearing ; and if there had 
 been a little prodigal — a wanderer from the 
 fold of peace or affection — it was on the sab- 
 bath that he returned, and, folding his arms 
 around his parent's neck, determined, in his 
 
24 HOME, OR 
 
 innocent but reckless wilfulness, to sin no 
 more. 
 
 Accustomed thus to regard and occupy the 
 sabbath, Mrs. Lee thought it no sin to wan- 
 der forth, even on this day, into the quiet 
 fields with her children — to pluck the wild 
 flower, and discourse upon its nature and its 
 growth — to listen to the happy birds, and 
 participate in the gladness of their song — or 
 to contemplate the blessings of repose and 
 social fellowship, exhibited in the various 
 groups thronging the doors of the village on 
 the sabbath day. 
 
 More wearied than she liked to confess to 
 herself with the monotony of her friend's 
 family, Mrs. Lee stole away on the Sunday 
 afternoon, for one of those quiet and confi- 
 dential rambles always anticipated by her chil- 
 dren with extreme delight. The fields were 
 now cleared of their golden burden ; the berries 
 of the hawthorn and the wild rose mingled 
 with the gorgeous hues of the fading foliage ; 
 
THE IRON RULE. 25 
 
 the clustering fruit, and sere leaves of the 
 wandering bramble marked the decay of sum- 
 mer's glory ; while the robin perched upon the 
 half naked boughs of the ash, chaunted that 
 wild sad dirge that appeals so touchingly to 
 the sympathies of man. Still there was no 
 sadness in the scene, for the mother and the 
 child had that within their hearts, that makes 
 a paradise in the midst of winter's snow ; and 
 on they wandered, discoursing amongst other 
 things of the changes of the seasons, and their 
 wonderful adaptation to the nature of man's 
 mind, prone as it is to weary even of the sweet 
 and the beautiful, unless occasionally deprived 
 of that which constitutes its chief enjoyment. 
 
 Their thoughts were not, however, entirely 
 occupied by the general contemplation of 
 nature, or of that portion of it which owns no 
 moral responsibility. On crossing the green 
 of the neighbouring village, for the purpose 
 of returning by a different path, the quick eye 
 of Mrs. Lee was attracted by an aged couple 
 
 VOL. I. c 
 
26 HOME, OR 
 
 bending studiously over the volume in which 
 they had been searching-, long and diligently, 
 for the text of the morning sermon. It was 
 evident that their search was attended with 
 considerable labour, their stock of book learn- 
 ing being barely sufficient to help them to the 
 capital letters; and Mrs. Lee, accustomed to 
 associate on terms of cordiality with her own 
 neighbours of this class, found no difficulty 
 in approaching the venerable cottagers, with- 
 out drawing upon herself the charge, either 
 of intrusion, or of idle curiosity. In a few 
 minutes she found the text they wanted, and 
 offered to read aloud the whole of the chapter, 
 or anything else they might wish to hear. Her 
 offer was gladly accepted, and the quiet couple 
 listened to her in unbroken silence, and with 
 looks of the most earnest attention to the end ; 
 when, encouraged by her open countenance, 
 and frieixlly manners, they took the oppor- 
 tunity of asking various questions productive 
 of a clear explanation of some passages of the 
 
THE IRON RULE. 27 
 
 Bible which had hitherto defeated all their 
 attempts at elucidation ; nor was it until the 
 cottage clock warned them of the lateness of 
 the hour, that Elliott and his mother rose to 
 depart, and to exchange this scene of simple 
 peace, for one as silent it is true, but far less 
 fertile in real enjoyment. 
 
 They found the family at Welbourne House 
 assembled in one apartment, where the sono- 
 rous voice of Stephen Grey held forth in 
 solemn tones and slow, from a book which 
 scarcely one of the individuals present could 
 by any effort of attention understand. These 
 efforts however, to judge by the countenances 
 of the audience, had not been very studiously 
 made, for some had resigned themselves to 
 sleep, others had kept their eyelids open by 
 the amusement of pinchings and counter- 
 pinchings beneath and behind each others' 
 stools ; and even Mary, — the patient, uncom- 
 plaining Mary, stretched out her neck every 
 time a page was turned over, in the hope of 
 
 c 2 
 
28 HOME, OR 
 
 seeing the welcome blank that would mark 
 the termination of one sermon out of the many 
 preached in vain. 
 
 And there upon their stools the poor little 
 sufferers had been seated for hours, first to 
 be catechised, then to be lectured, and af- 
 terwards to be read to, without one single 
 word, or look, or tone, calculated to reacli 
 the well-spring of an infant's feelings, or fos- 
 ter the first fruits of an opening mind. 
 
 As it is hoped the reader will take some 
 interest, if not exactly in the system of 
 domestic management adopted by Stephen 
 Grey, at least in observing how that system 
 worked, it may not be out of place here to 
 introduce to his notice the different individuals 
 upon whom it operated. 
 
 First in importance, then, was James Grey, 
 the oldest son, whose complexion, hair, and 
 features, bore a strong resemblance to those 
 of his father; but that greater pliability of 
 muscle enabled him to smile, as well as look 
 
THE IRON RULE. 29 
 
 serious, just as occasion required. Some 
 people tliought it a sinister smile, and certainly 
 it was one tliat seldom ripened into a hearty 
 laugh. It seemed to be a smile, having a 
 purpose in it, rather than arising from the 
 natural gaiety of a light free spirit. 
 
 With all his strict sense of propriety, his 
 inborn desire to be, to do, and especially to 
 look, the thing most approved in society, 
 James Grey was not able throughout the whole 
 of his father's sabbath readings to shake off 
 the influence of the leaden god ; but the efforts 
 he made to recover himself before detection, 
 after each inadvertent nod — to rear himself up 
 yet more majestically on his stool, though they 
 sometimes endangered his person by a back- 
 ward inclination, were truly worthy of imi- 
 tation by his juniors, and such as they ought 
 to have been proud to see an example of in 
 their elder brother. 
 
 But wholly regardless of other people's 
 merits, as well as unambitious to support his 
 
30 HOME, OR 
 
 own, George Grey, the next in age, sat reeling 
 to and fro, now this way, and then that ; his 
 heavy eyelids raised only for the critical 
 moment when most in dansfer of losing^ his 
 equilibrium, or when his brother James in the 
 intervals of his own slumbers twitched his 
 jacket, jerked his elbow, or forcibly stuck 
 a large j)iii i^^to his round massy shoulders. 
 Then it was that George endeavoured to main- 
 tain his often disputed title to sensibility ; for 
 touch but his person, and he was all alive — 
 touch it with ever so minute a sense of pain, 
 and if so situated that he dared not kick or 
 bellow, the big tears used to stand in his large 
 grey eyes, while his thick lips protruded in 
 the silent petulance of a sullen, slow, deep- 
 seated rage. 
 
 As if in contrast with the srross bodilv sub- 
 stance of George Grey, his sister Mary had 
 seated herself beside him ; her earnest thought- 
 ful eyes, that looked too spiritual for sleep, 
 fixed intently upon her father's countenance, 
 
THE IRON RULE. 31 
 
 her slender figure bending from the weariness 
 necessarily accompanying her long and patient 
 endurance of this unnatural restraint, and her 
 attention, whenever it wandered from the sub- 
 ject of her father's book, (which it did perforce,) 
 resting with love and care and tenderness upon 
 the different objects around her. 
 
 Mary was not beautiful, nor a genius, ])ut 
 she had something in her pale and serious 
 face which often fixed the eye of the beholder, 
 making the sick or the suffering appeal to her 
 for sympathy, and the helpless ask at her 
 hands the kindness of which they were in need. 
 
 Next in the group was Allan Grey, in coun- 
 tenance like Mary, but possessing far higher 
 claims to beauty. There was evidently more 
 of genius in his character ; while he wanted 
 the strength of mind, the firmness, and sta- 
 bility of his sister. He was one of those fair 
 and delicatelv moulded creatures, who make 
 us tremble for their after lot ; and even while 
 the sun is upon their shining hair, and the 
 
32 HOME, OR 
 
 light of early life beams from their "pure 
 clear eyes," we involuntarily mark out for them 
 a path of sorrow and suffering, which we would 
 almost rather occupy ourselves than see them 
 doomed to tread. Yet why these gloomy 
 comments upon Allan Grey, who looked up 
 with rosy cheek and dimpling smiles, as soon 
 as the sharp rebuke was ended, or the tear 
 was wiped away ? 
 
 Mary had usually found it necessary to 
 separate Allan from the little mischievous, 
 rebellious Harriet, but, on the present occa- 
 sion, they sat together ; and, whatever might 
 have been Allan's wish, it was impossible to 
 yield to any kind of composing influence, so 
 long as Harriet, with her curly head and 
 laughing eyes, sat mimicking, in dumb show, 
 all the animals that " went up into the ark," 
 or alternately stretching her arm to its utmost 
 length, in order to accomplish a sly prick at 
 George, or twitching Allan's waving curls, 
 and then, in an instant, looking gravely up 
 
THE IRON RULE. 33 
 
 at her father, as if drinking in the wisdom of 
 Solomon . 
 
 There was no genius in Harriet's coun- 
 tenance, and little beauty besides that of 
 extreme vivacity. Her features, when in 
 motion, (and that was almost always) indi- 
 cated the most inveterate love of fun ; but 
 when at rest, they were marked by a strong- 
 will, the cause of many a desperate struggle 
 in the nursery, and of the infliction of cor- 
 poreal punishment, so frequent as to harden 
 the feelings it was unable to subdue. 
 
 Ellen, the youngest child, more commonly 
 called by the undiscriminating title of " baby," 
 not yet old enough to be admitted on these so- 
 lemn occasions, remained in the nursery with 
 her too-indulgent mother, whose rapidly increa- 
 sing weakness rendered her less capable than 
 ever of exercising the authority of a parent. 
 
 In the midst of the group we have here 
 described, Elliott Lee made his unceremonious 
 entrance. Accustomed to no restraint but that 
 
 c3 
 
3i HOME, OR 
 
 of reason, love, and duty, his manners were 
 easy, natural, and free ; and while he glanced 
 round upon the little automatons, who bore 
 without complaint their different lot, his curl- 
 ing lip too plainly indicated the scorn his 
 mother so often attempted to restrain : for, 
 to say the whole truth of Elliott, he was too 
 proud and too bold in the expression of his 
 contempt, to be at all times an amiable and 
 agreeable companion. Mary Grey would plead 
 with her brothers that Elliott had a right to 
 be proud, he was so handsome, so noble- 
 hearted, so clever ; and if they would not 
 listen, she would add what to her was of far 
 less importance, he was born to the inheri- 
 tance of an independent fortune. To this 
 happy fate the boys were by no means in- 
 different ; but, at the same time that his 
 circumstances entitled him to their respect, 
 it was evident that respect was tainted with a 
 slight touch of envy. Nor was it more than 
 reasonable that, to associate witli one so pri- 
 
THE IRON RULE. 35 
 
 vileged, should call forth feelings, the reverse 
 of amiable, in the minds of those whose por- 
 tion in life seemed likely to be essentially 
 different from his. 
 
 " Cousin Lee," said Stephen Grey, as soon 
 as the children had retired on the Sunday 
 evening, (for such was his quaint but familiar 
 mode of address,) " I cannot part with a friend 
 so long known, and, I may add, so much 
 esteemed, without expressing my regret, in 
 relation to the observations I have made upon 
 your system of education, particularly as refers 
 to religious observances." 
 
 *' You have so exactly described what was 
 the burden of my own thoughts towards you," 
 replied Mrs. Lee, " that if we do but go on 
 with the same unanimity, we shall part with 
 mutual satisfaction." 
 
 '* What!" said Stephen Grey, his brow con- 
 tracting as he spoke, " do you mean to in- 
 sinuate that there is any thing to be said against 
 the system of management adopted by me in 
 my family?" 
 
36 HOME, OR 
 
 " I mean not to insinuate, Mr. Grey, but 
 to tell you plainly, that I think that system 
 at variance both with reason and experience ; 
 and, if persisted in, there is but too much 
 cause to fear it will be ruinous in its results." 
 
 Stephen Grey had never been the subject of 
 so great an insult before ; and, losing his self- 
 possession so far as to overstep the bounds of 
 common civility, he replied to the unflinching 
 offender in no measured tone : 
 
 *' Look to your own ruin, Mrs. Lee, and 
 remember my words when that haughty rebel 
 of yours has broken his mother's heart." 
 
 *' This is the sabbath evening," said Mrs. 
 Lee, gently laying her hand upon his arm : 
 ** and we are two parents, met to converse 
 beneath the eye of Heaven, upon the temporal 
 and eternal happiness of our children." 
 
 " Say on," said Stephen Grey, subdued by 
 the mild dignity of her manner, as well as by 
 the mortifying conviction of having been 
 betrayed into the sin of anger at a time when 
 
THE IRON RULE. 37 
 
 passion was least excusable. " Say on ; I hold 
 it the duty of a rational man to keep his mind 
 open to conviction, but remember the end is 
 not yet." 
 
 " True, my friend ; and while the end is 
 hid from us, it is our part to look carefully 
 to the means. I will not repeat now the many 
 arguments I have held with you on this sub- 
 ject. You know the principle upon which I 
 act is one calculated to make obedience 
 a matter of choice rather than of necessity ; 
 and my primary endeavour is to associate the 
 first acts of submission and the first ideas 
 of duty, with so much enjoyment, that they 
 shall ever afterwards be recurred to with 
 pleasure." 
 
 " And for this reason you roam about the 
 fields on the sabbath day, and catch butter- 
 flies, and let your son run wild." 
 
 " The colouring you have given to a ra- 
 tional and quiet walk is ridiculous enough ; 
 but let me ask what you do, Mr. Grey ?" 
 
38 HOME, OR 
 
 " I make my children feel the difference 
 between the sabbath and other days, by mark- 
 ing it with a more sober, orderly, and decent 
 demeanour ; and I endeavour to occupy every 
 moment of their time, either by religious 
 exercises or by serious reading." 
 
 '* I, too, should be sorry for my children 
 to spend any part of the sabbath in positive 
 idleness ; and, in order that this may not be 
 the case, I study how to vary their employ- 
 ments so as to adapt them to the infant mind ; 
 and I think you will hardly maintain that, 
 after an hour's walk, a boy of ten years old 
 will be less interested by suitable reading than 
 if he had been listening, or trying to listen, 
 all the day. Again, even serious reading may 
 have its disadvantages if not selected with 
 care, and for this reason I make a collection 
 of books that appear suitable to me, and 
 submit them to my children's choice." 
 
 " My children," replied Stephen Grey, with 
 an air of superior authority, " are not per- 
 
THE IRON RULE. 39 
 
 mitted to choose for themselves. I fix upon 
 the book, and never find them unwilling to 
 listen so long as it is my pleasure to read." 
 
 " Children," observed Mrs. Lee, "are often 
 unwilling when they dare not appear so ; but 
 I fear, my friend, that this comparison of our 
 different rules of action will tend to very 
 little purpose while their effect upon the moral 
 character remains to be proved. I would 
 rather reason from the nature of the human 
 heart, and from the established fact that we 
 are always inclined to do what gives us the 
 greatest pleasure, rather than what we know 
 to be intrinsically best ; and, consequently, 
 when religious observances are rendered pain- 
 ful or irksome, from want of adaptation or 
 variety, they will be neglected in after life, 
 if for no other reason, because of the dis- 
 tressing recollections with which they are 
 associated. The idea that religion is a kind 
 of slavery, to which none can submit without 
 sacrificing the natural enjoyments of life, has 
 
40 HOME, OR 
 
 ever been the greatest hindrance to its ad- 
 vancement amongst mankind. How much 
 wiser and better should we be, if we could carry 
 along with us, from infancy to old age, the 
 full conviction that happiness — substantial 
 fundamental happiness, is founded upon the 
 continual cultivation and exercise of the 
 Christian virtues." 
 
 " This sentimental philosophy of yours, may 
 be all very fine in theory," said Stephen Grey, 
 " but I am a practical man, cousin Lee ; and 
 I must say, I should be ashamed to acknow- 
 ledge in my family so rebellious a member as 
 that high-spirited boy of yours." 
 
 " You are very severe upon poor Elliott," 
 said his mother, with a painful consciousness 
 that he was indeed far from possessing the 
 virtue of a Christian temper ; " but while his 
 affection for his parents, his home, and the 
 domestic regulations upon which all the com- 
 forts of that home depend, are so strong as to 
 lead him back after every defection from duty, 
 
THE IRON RULE. 41 
 
 with full conviction of his error, sincere peni- 
 tence, and better resolutions for the future, I 
 cannot altogether despair of his being ulti- 
 mately what I most desire." 
 
 " The signs are not very favourable, cousin 
 Lee. I never yet knew an insolent boy who 
 did not turn out a bad man. Your boy may 
 be an exception, but I should fear his example 
 with the other children." 
 
 "My other children, thank Heaven! have 
 not the same temper to contend with. Believe 
 me I see the faults of Elliott as clearly, and 
 much more painfully than you can ; and even 
 if in after life he should deviate widely from 
 the line of moral rectitude, I shall not blame 
 the system of education his father and I have 
 thought it right to pursue ; but watch, and 
 pray, and even hope, for the time to come, 
 when he may be led back by early remem- 
 brances to the path of virtue, which we are 
 endeavouring to recommend to his choice by 
 rendering it as happy as we can. Your 
 
42 HOME, OR 
 
 children are obedient, Mr. Grey, whether from 
 choice or necessity — from love or fear, is not 
 for me to say ; but as one who has deeply felt 
 the awftil responsibility of a parent, I entreat 
 you to study more than you have done their 
 different dispositions and temperaments, in 
 order that you may adapt your discipline to 
 their various modes of thinking and feeling. 
 Mankind are not like grains of wheat, all to 
 be ground down by the same pressure. Some 
 minds will be hardened by the force which 
 others yield to, and some spirits will be broken 
 by what is only a wholesome corrective to 
 others. But I see my remarks are not accept- 
 able. You think I am a visionary, as blind — 
 perhaps more so — to the real good of my 
 children, as I think you to that of yours." 
 
 Mrs. Lee rose as she said this, and it was 
 with a countenance so sad and serious, that 
 Stephen Grey repented him of the stern 
 reproachful language he had used. 
 
 '* Before we part," said Mrs. Lee, " let me 
 
THE IRON RULE. 43 
 
 beg* of you to pardon my interference, and 
 believe it was well meant." 
 
 " I also must beg of you to pardon my 
 rudeness," said Stephen Grey, ''and to believe 
 it arose only from a momentary surprise at 
 hearing the propriety of my domestic regu- 
 lations called in question. It is a thing I am 
 not accustomed to, cousin Lee." 
 
 A cordial good night followed this acknow- 
 ledgment, which was much more than might 
 have been expected from the gentleman, and 
 certainly much more than he would have 
 deigned to offer to any other woman than her 
 whom he regarded as the friend of his youth, 
 and who, though she rarely saw any single 
 point of moral duty in the same light with him, 
 maintained, by the irresistible influence of her 
 good sense and good feeling, the liberty of 
 speaking to him with more freedom than was 
 dreamed of by any other individual. 
 
44 HOME, OR 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 There was but another day of penance for 
 Elliott to endure, and when that was accom- 
 plished, he found himself, much to his satis- 
 faction, snugly seated beside his mother in a 
 travelling carriage, the horses, like himself, 
 impatient to be gone, and the little Greys 
 waving their hands, and repeating their adieus, 
 as they stood 25eeping over one another's 
 shoulders upon the steps of the hall. 
 
 Elliott thought he had never heard their 
 voices sound so sweet before ; indeed, it was 
 so pleasant to leave them, or rather their dull, 
 monotonous home, and he felt so happy in the 
 thought of soon beholding his own, that a 
 
THE IRON RULE. 45 
 
 thrill of affection warmed his heart, and he 
 wished the most agreeable of the party were 
 going with him and his mother ; especially 
 Mary, who looked so sincerely sorry, that he 
 stretched out his head, and asked her to go, 
 assuring her there was room enough in the 
 carriage. 
 
 " You should have thought of that a little 
 earlier," said James, with a smile which 
 Elliott did not like. 
 
 " I thought of it, my love," said Mrs. Lee, 
 holding out her hand to Mary, " and have ob- 
 tained your father's permission for you to pay 
 us a long visit in the spring." 
 
 The tears which Mary had been about to 
 shed for sorrow, now rushed to her eyes for 
 joy. She could express nothing but thanks, 
 as genuine as ever flowed from a grateful 
 heart ; for of all society, Mary best loved that 
 of Mrs. Lee, while, for her daughter Cathe- 
 rine, she had already commenced a girlish 
 friendship, probably owing its strength and 
 
46 HOME, OR 
 
 durability, in great measure, to her want of 
 congeniality at home. 
 
 The glimmering sunshine of an autumn 
 morning soon faded from the travellers' path, 
 and light grey clouds which had been flitting 
 across the sky seemed gradually to gather into 
 one uniform mass of threatening gloom ; while 
 a hollow, fitful wind rushed wildly through the 
 trees, and scattered the remnant of their foliage. 
 Mrs. Lee looked anxiously from one window 
 of the carriage, and Elliott from the other. 
 It is probable their thoughts were occupied by 
 the same subject, but they held little commu- 
 nion, until the day was far advanced, when, 
 as the clouds grew darker, and the wind 
 blew tempestuously, Elliott drew near to his 
 mother, and pressed her hand in his. It was 
 not fear that kept them silent, for they were 
 rapidly and safely approaching their beloved 
 home, but anxious thoughts of one, who at 
 that appalling hour was tossed upon the 
 stormy sea, and Elliott knew too well his 
 
THE IRON RULE. 47 
 
 mother's feelings to risk the name of him 
 who was the guide and comfort of her life. 
 
 " I think there is no moon now," was the 
 first remark he ventured in allusion to the 
 painful and absorbing subject ; but when he 
 found that his mother answered only by avert- 
 ing her face, and pressing his hand more 
 closely, he relinquished the theme altogether, 
 and leaning back in the carriage, determined, 
 since it was in vain attempting to divert her 
 thoughts, that he would not interrupt them. 
 ^ The tidings of their anxiously-expected ar- 
 rival gladdened every heart in Mrs. Lee's 
 family. The domestics gathered round their 
 mistress, solicitous to give substantial proof 
 of their welcome, by individually performing 
 some act of kindness or attention ; and the 
 two younger children, who were permitted to 
 take an active part in the scene, though later 
 than their usual hour of rest, made the house 
 echo with their joyful acclamations. 
 
 In relation to subjects of the deepest in- 
 
48 HOME, 0R> 
 
 terest, we seldom ask of others wliat we can 
 ascertain by our own observations ; and Mrs. 
 Lee went directly to the mantel-piece to exa- 
 mine the last arrival of letters. There was 
 one from a tradesman, and one from an old 
 friend ; but no tidings of the return of the 
 ship in which her husband was expected. 
 
 " Then he must be on the wide sea this 
 stormy night," was her internal conviction, 
 and her heart sunk within her ; but suddenly 
 recollecting how much she owed to the affec- 
 tion and solicitude of those around her, she 
 roused herself so as to enter, with her usual 
 interest, into all they had to relate of what 
 had taken place during her absence, and to lis- 
 ten with affectionate cordiality to their warm 
 expressions of delight at her return. 
 
 All the different duties of a mother and a 
 mistress were faithfully performed, as if her 
 mind had no absorbing care. The presents 
 for her children ; the sick neighbour, and the 
 dying pauper, were all remembered ; nor was 
 
THE IRON RULE. 49 
 
 it until every member of the household had 
 retired to rest, and she herself had sought her 
 sleepless pillow, that she yielded up her 
 thoughts to the torturing anxieties of a sai- 
 lor's wife. 
 
 Captain Lee had, in his early youth, been 
 a victim to the alternate extremes of indul- 
 gence and severity, both injudiciously applied; 
 and the consequence was a wilful abandon- 
 ment of his unhappy home, with the wild 
 reckless wish — half enthusiasm and half 
 revenge, so prevalent with wayward boys — 
 finally terminating in his going to sea. In 
 the first paroxysms of indignation his father 
 made his will, left all he possessed so that 
 no part of it could be appropriated by his 
 rebellious child, and died before he had time 
 to see the absurdity and injustice of what he 
 had done. 
 
 Without friends, without comforts, and 
 equally without hopes, except what arose out 
 of his father's partial fits of kindness, all 
 remembered and magnified by contrast with 
 
 VOL. I. D 
 
50 HOME, OR 
 
 his present desolate situation, the young ad- 
 venturer was soon brought down from his 
 towering height of independence ; and many 
 were the resolutions he made in the long night 
 watches, that, as soon as the vessel should 
 touch the shores of England, he would fly to 
 his father, and meet the welcome which he 
 never doubted was awaiting his return. 
 
 With this determination, he actually set 
 off from the seaport-town where he landed, 
 to travel on foot to his native place. His 
 resources were little beyond those of the 
 humblest pilgrim, but his heart was light, 
 his limbs were agile, and expectation, un- 
 clouded by a ray of doubt, led him cheerfully 
 along. Undisturbed by fear or anxiety, he 
 made no inquiries by the way ; but walking 
 straight up to the door of what was once his 
 father's mansion, he first tried his strength 
 upon the bolt, and then knocked loudly for 
 admittance. A female servant answered his 
 thundering knock — she was a stranger, but 
 that was nothing. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 51 
 
 " My father — " said he, and as he spoke, the 
 accents died upon his lips, for by a single 
 glance into the hall he saw that all was new 
 and strange. There were female habiliments, 
 and children's toys, and things his father never 
 could endure the sight of. 
 
 The woman with the quick perceptions of 
 her sex, soon guessed his name, and told him, 
 as gently as she could, to what habitation his 
 father was removed. 
 
 For a long time the boy stood like a statue 
 upon the steps. He would not enter, and he 
 could not go away. It was, however, no place 
 for him ; and little children beginning to peep 
 from their nursery at the poor sailor, he 
 turned his back upon the well-known door, 
 and set off once more, to go, he knew not where. 
 
 " The world was all before him," — 
 
 he had no ties of affection, and few of kindred ; 
 but the thought of the independence which at 
 his father's death ought to devolve upon him as 
 
 ° LIBRARY 
 
 yNIVERSITY OF ILUNOli 
 
52 HOME, OR 
 
 an only child, supported his spirit, and with a 
 sense of humiliation arising from his destitute 
 situation and forlorn appearance, which came 
 upon him for the first time after he had learned 
 that his father was no more, he sought the re- 
 sidence of his maternal uncle, where, along with 
 a cool welcome, he heard the bitter tidings 
 that he was not only an orphan, but a beggar. 
 For one night, and one only, he resigned 
 himself to the agony of despair ; and often in 
 after life he would recall that night as being 
 longer than many years he had since spent. 
 The morning found him collected, and resolved. 
 His situation was too clearly understood to 
 admit of indecision. He had nothing but his 
 own industry and exertion to depend upon ; 
 and with youth, and health, and elasticity, both 
 of mind and body, in his favour, he took leave 
 of his relations, unmoved by their languid en- 
 treaties that he would prolong his stay, and 
 once more tried his fortune upon that uncer- 
 tain element to which he looked as to his only 
 
THE IRON RULE. 53 
 
 friend. He had now no fear of danger, no 
 thought of indulgence. Prompt, decided, and 
 energetic, he worked his way through all the 
 gradations of a successful seaman's life, to the 
 post of comparative dignity he had main- 
 tained with rectitude and honour, ever since 
 his union with Catherine Grey. 
 
 To say that with the noble bearing of a 
 dauntless sailor, Captain Lee had acquired a 
 degree of intellectual refinement not often 
 associated with his peculiar line of life, might 
 seem too much like the fanciful invention of 
 a woman's pen ; did not observation bear us 
 out in asserting, that along with rational con- 
 clusions drawn from the actual experience of 
 social life, and above all, along with correct 
 views of moral responsibility, whether derived 
 from instruction or from personal observation, 
 there is frequently associated a degree of moral 
 dignity so far removed from prejudice and 
 vulgarity, as to wear the distinctive character- 
 istics of intellectual refinement. If, therefore, 
 
54 HOME, OR 
 
 Captain Lee was careless of his mode of speech, 
 he never uttered sentiments that would dis- 
 grace a philosopher, or raise a blush upon the 
 cheek of a true gentlewoman. 
 
 One of his ruling topics of conversation, in 
 the transient intervals of social intercourse 
 enjoyed with his family, was the paramount 
 importance of making his children a happy 
 home ; and he never parted from his wife 
 without laying this injunction upon her heart. 
 
 " Never fear, Kate," he would say, " if like 
 wild birds they should fly away from the pa- 
 rent wing, they will come back when the 
 storm is upon them, and they think of the 
 shelter of their mother's nest." 
 
 Thus, not only from the conviction of her 
 own heart, but of him who shared its secret 
 cares, Mrs. Lee had bound herself, as to a 
 sacred duty, by that great principle which she 
 believed to be the foundation of moral disci- 
 pline, and never was this duty more influential 
 than when the perils of her husband's situation 
 
THE IRON RULE. 56 
 
 were brought most forcibly home to her ach- 
 ing heart. 
 
 Who shall describe the night watches of 
 those who know that the ocean bears the 
 treasure of their souls — who shrink within 
 themselves, yet seem to find no shelter from 
 the howling blast — who listen, and hope that 
 the storm is abating, when it does but retreat 
 to come again with redoubled fury, roaring 
 and bellowing, till the wild wind, and the 
 creaking branches, and the' hissing rain, are 
 mingled as it were into one universal shriek ! 
 And then the dark heaving waters seem to 
 rise again, and all is swept away by the 
 booming waves, or by the moaning blast, that 
 groans and murmurs as it falls, lower and 
 lower, into the abyss of destruction. 
 
 Perhaps no woman could be more alive to 
 every variety of this torturing agony, than the 
 wife and the mother we have described ; but as 
 the storm grew louder, and her heart fainted 
 within her, and she buried her face in the 
 
56 HOME, OR 
 
 pillow to escape the terrific sounds, her fears 
 such as none but woman's heart can feel, her 
 thoughts whose increasing tenderness redouble 
 their excruciating anguish, and her sighs and 
 tears for which she knew there was no balm 
 on earth, were soothed by the consolations of 
 prayer, or lost in earnest and heart-rending 
 supplications for mercy and protection. 
 
 The morning rose upon a scene of desolation. 
 The storm still raged, and the scattered heaps 
 of autumnal leaves, with broken boughs, and 
 loose fragments of other frail and perishable 
 things, were tossed and driven to and fro 
 before the unsparing blast. It needed all the 
 fortitude and self-possession of the mother, 
 after such a night, to meet her children with 
 her wonted cordial manner. Their fondest 
 caresses brought little comfort to her bosom, 
 and in their cheerful gambols she saw only the 
 frolic of the lamb that sports in happy igno- 
 rance of the accumulated ills of life. 
 
 This day was like the last, and the evening 
 
THE IRON RULE. 57 
 
 closed in, dark, sullen, and tempestuous. On 
 tlie following morning, as the little party v/ere 
 seated round the breakfast table, a man was 
 seen riding at full speed up the avenue. He 
 brought a letter from a friend in London. 
 The first words told all. The vessel long 
 expected had been seen off the eastern coast 
 on the evening of the storm. It became a 
 total wreck and not a soul was saved. 
 
 Elliott watched his mother's countenance as 
 she read. It grew pale as death. He could 
 bear no longer to be excluded from her bosom 
 counsels, and throwing his arms around her 
 neck, he mingled his tears with hers. 
 
 We will not attempt to describe the scene 
 that followed, or the after days, of which each 
 seemed longer and heavier than the last ; for 
 the first shock of grief carries along with it a 
 kind of mysterious support to the stricken soul, 
 subdued only by the quiet certainty of its suc- 
 ceeding gloom. 
 
 The widowed mother bore her affliction as a 
 D 3 
 
58 HOME, OR 
 
 Christian ought. Her conduct was not distin- 
 guished by any remarkable extremes, either of 
 anguish or fortitude ; but quietly yielding to 
 the blow, she prepared herself as well as she 
 was able to profit by its severity, and to bless 
 the hand from which it came. All the ordi- 
 nary routine of her duties was gone through 
 with patience and submission ; even that of 
 enduring the condolences of friends, who in 
 lamenting her bereavement, unanimously and 
 almost in the same language pointed to that 
 consolation by which alone she was supported. 
 Nor would we underrate the tender mer- 
 cies of those who are in haste to sympathise 
 with the fatherless and the widow in their af- 
 fliction ; but there is a time, when the stroke 
 is recent, and the wounded spirit of the mour- 
 ner is drawn as it were within the veil of the 
 sanctuary of grief, to participate deeply and 
 fully in the mercies reserved for the wounded 
 and the contrite ; when the common language 
 of consolation might well be spared, when pity 
 
THE IRON RULE. 59 
 
 however genuine or sincere conveys no balm, 
 and when the last hope of the miserable, 
 because it has been laid hold of and clung 
 to as the last, needs not to be pointed out by- 
 officious hands. 
 
 Still the feeling which prompts this ready 
 condolence is a kind one, and deserves to be 
 patiently borne with. In the present instance 
 the sufferer added the virtue of gratitude to 
 that of patience. The many expressions of 
 sorrow flowing in upon the first tidings of her 
 calamity, were faithfully read over by Mrs. 
 Lee ; and if they served no better purpose, they 
 helped to draw away her thoughts, for a few 
 brief moments, from too concentrated a ten- 
 dency to one absorbing theme. 
 
 Amongst these letters was one, which, from 
 its peculiar character, it may not be amiss to 
 quote at full length. It commenced, by way 
 of avoiding too great familiarity, with the 
 quaint address adopted by Stephen Grey. 
 
60 HOME, OR 
 
 '* Cousin Lee, 
 "It would neither have been my business nor 
 my pleasure to address you at this time, save 
 that weighty considerations of what is due 
 from me as a long tried friend, and I may add 
 a faithful adviser, prompt me to an act of 
 painful but imperative duty. Others may 
 sympathise with you. It is more in my way 
 to serve you. And I know of no means by 
 which I can effectually do this, than by offering 
 to take your oldest boy under my especial care, 
 as an inmate of my family, where he may learn 
 both by example and precept to be more obe- 
 dient than he is likely to prove to a widowed 
 and indulgent mother. It is probable that you 
 may not just at this time wish to part with him, 
 otherwise the bearer of this is prepared to 
 make arrangements with you for his immediate 
 coming to Welbourne. In case the tenderness 
 to which (allow me to say you are too liable) 
 
THE IRON RULE. 61 
 
 should overcome your prudence at the present 
 moment, I shall still expect to receive your 
 willing assent to my proposal by to-morrow 
 week at the latest. In the mean time, let me 
 entreat you to consider how much the welfare 
 of the lad is at stake, and not from any weak 
 prejudice in favour of your peculiar notions of 
 domestic discipline, to throw away this oppor- 
 tunity of support and assistance offered by 
 " Your faithful friend, 
 
 " Stephen Grey." 
 
62 HOME, OR 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to say, that the pro- 
 posal for placing Elliott Lee beneath the 
 guardianship of her early friend, was declined 
 by his mother, with many thanks for the real 
 kindness which prompted the well-meant but 
 ill-judged offer ; or that Stephen Grey, his 
 conscience once delivered of this duty, inter- 
 nally congratulated himself upon an escape 
 from additional trouble and anxiety ; for to 
 tell the truth, as time rolled on, he discovered 
 indications of disobedience amongst his own 
 quiet flock, that baffled all his sage calcula- 
 tions upon causes and effects. 
 
 James his oldest son, and the pride of his 
 
THE IRON RULE. 63 
 
 father's heart, still continued, to all appear- 
 ance, a living proof of the benefit of strict 
 and indiscriminating discipline ; and George, 
 though obstinate and impervious to instruc- 
 tion, seldom deviated farther from the line of 
 decorum than to fill his pockets with the 
 choicest fruit, and snore aloud during his 
 father's interminable sermons. Mary, too, 
 was a good and dutiful child, except that she 
 sometimes ventured too far when endeavouring 
 to propitiate parental feeling, by pleading for 
 her brothers and sisters. But Allan, an idle 
 miscreant, was for ever wandering in the fields, 
 gathering wild flowers, or listening to the birds, 
 when he ought to have been attending to his 
 brother James, who, after completing his own 
 education at fifteen, was constituted, for econo- 
 my's sake, preceptor to the family. Yet worse 
 than all was Harriet, a rebel of the deepest 
 dye, whom no punishment could subdue, and 
 no discipline could tame. Boisterous fun was 
 all she cared for ; and without any particular 
 
64 HOME, OR 
 
 delicacy as to the ineans or manner of enjoy- 
 ment, she held a laugh or a frolic cheaply pur- 
 chased by the sacrifice of her own or another's 
 peace. Vain were all the threats of her father, 
 the frowns of her brother James, and the en- 
 treaties of Mary, to whom her mother's death 
 had bequeathed a sort of maternal authority, 
 extending, however, little beyond the helpless 
 infant left to her sole care. Still if there was 
 any human being for whom Harriet would 
 have ceased to mimick her father, and teaze 
 her brother George, and play tricks with Allan 
 when he ought to have been gravely studying 
 Euclid, or construing Virgil, it was Mary, 
 whose disinterested solicitude for the good and 
 the happiness of all around her, rendered it an 
 object of anxiety with the generous hearted to 
 render her happy in return. 
 
 Of this class we are afraid that Allan and 
 his sister Mary must stand as the sole repre- 
 sentatives in the family of Stephen Grey. And 
 most probably it was the strength of the sym- 
 
THE IRON RULE. 65 
 
 pathy, founded upon this feeling, which bound 
 them together with more than common interest 
 and affection. With all the others Mary was 
 kind, and social, and ever ready to sacrifice 
 her time and talents in their service ; but to 
 Allan she could unfold her inmost thoughts 
 with the delightful confidence that they would 
 not only be understood, but treated with con- 
 sideration. In return she was to her brother 
 the very prop of his life ; for though gifted 
 beyond his sister with a versatility of talent, 
 and with that enthusiasm which, in connexion 
 with talent, obtains the distinction of genius, 
 he was miserably deficient in prudence and 
 forethought, and more than commonly de- 
 pendent upon female affection for all it suffers, 
 and for all it yields. 
 
 Thus constituted, it was impossible but that 
 Allan should be an object of contempt to his 
 father, who was no more capable of under- 
 standing the heights and depths of such a 
 character, than of analvzing the nature of a 
 
66 HOME, OR 
 
 comet, or describing its origin and its final 
 extinction. He saw nothing in his luckless 
 child but his want of common sense, of which 
 his total disregard of all pecuniary advantages, 
 was in his father's opinion, an unpardonable 
 proof. Allan's capacity for profound thought, 
 his susceptibility to all exquisite and extreme 
 emotions, and his noble disdain of all aflfec- 
 tation and concealment, went for nothing, or 
 worse than nothing; for his reveries were 
 mistaken for vacuity of mind, his susceptibility 
 for childish weakness, and his open daring to 
 seem what he really was, with the recklessness 
 with which he permitted all his errors to stand 
 forth undisguised, subjected him to a degree 
 of harshness, and frequency of censure, far 
 beyond that extended to his more prudent 
 brothers. Like the rest of the family, how- 
 ever, he was silent and submissive in his 
 father's presence ; for no sooner was the stately 
 step heard pacing through the hall, than the 
 favourite book was hid ; the last fragment of 
 
THE IRON RULE. 67 
 
 ihe stolen sweetmeat bolted down the widest 
 or the readiest throat, which mostly happened 
 to be that of master George ; and the pet 
 kitten, spite of its teeth and claws, crammed 
 into Harriet's pocket; while those who had 
 been lounging on the hearth-rug, suddenly 
 mounted, bolt upright on their proper chairs ; 
 and those who had been idle all the day, busily 
 opened and shut the drawers and closets as if 
 in search of some useful article or implement, 
 without which it was impossible to proceed in 
 their laudable exertions. 
 
 The whole scene being thus metamorphosed, 
 Stephen Grey used to place his tall athletic 
 figure in the midst of the group, never doubt- 
 ing but that he saw in the countenances and 
 general deportment of his children, all that 
 was to be known of their individual character. 
 Business requiring his attention at the neigh- 
 bouring town the greatest part of each day, his 
 first questions relating to home aifairs were 
 uniformly addressed to his son James, as the 
 head of the establishment, who, whether he 
 
68 HOME, OR 
 
 had taken the opportunity of visiting a friend, 
 or 'with his fishing rod had spent the time 
 from his father's departure till his return in 
 the neighbouring meadows, used to answer 
 with a tone as concise, as unembarrassed, and 
 if possible as directly to the point, as if he had 
 been all the while upon the scene of action. 
 
 Once or twice it happened that people had 
 called in the way of business with a message 
 for James, and he knew nothing of the matter ; 
 but then he could turn upon Mary with an 
 angry reproof for not having sought him in 
 the garden, the orchard, or the attic, where he 
 was often obliged to retreat in order to pursue 
 his studies without interruption. And Mary 
 on such occasions never betrayed her brother, 
 for fear of the tremendous wrath of her father, 
 dreaded by all but herself and Allan, more 
 than falsehood ; but she used to fix upon the 
 wily deceiver her clear searching eyes, under 
 which he quailed almost as much as if he had 
 met his father's frown. 
 
 It was much to be regretted that Stephen 
 
THE IRON RULE. 69 
 
 Grey did not know the difference between 
 returning in this manner to his own fireside, 
 and that return which is met by a cordial wel- 
 come, and a full and fearless detail of all that 
 has been done, and thought, and suffered in a 
 parent's absence. For in his case it was more 
 from real ignorance of what constitutes the 
 secret of domestic union and happiness, than 
 from the hardness of his own heart, that he 
 was never met with the frank cordiality of 
 affection, nor suffered to penetrate beyond the 
 surface of the domestic scene. Had he known 
 the whole, or even but a part of what his 
 children were individually thinking and feel- 
 ing, he would have been sorry to thwart their 
 innocent wishes, and cut down the springs of 
 early hope, and poison the fountains of filial 
 affection, as he did. For from the days of 
 their infancy they had seldom had a favourite 
 game but it was thought objectionable and 
 forbidden ; seldom was a little hoard of money 
 laid out in the purchase of a long-wished-for 
 
70 HOME, OR 
 
 treasure, but the treasure was condemned as 
 worthless, or taken away as pernicious ; in 
 short, seldom did the little bounding heart 
 betray its anticipations of promised joy, but 
 the cup of pleasure was dashed to the ground, 
 and the disappointed mourner chidden for a 
 rebellious wish to recall its sweetness. 
 
 At the same time, however, there were 
 games proposed in lieu of those forbidden, but 
 they were generally such as had no charm, 
 from being out of season, old, or spiritless; 
 while useful implements of labour were recom- 
 mended to be purchased instead of the appro- 
 priated treasure, and enjoyments were proposed 
 and even forced upon the unwilling receiver, 
 which from their own nature, or their want of 
 right application, were converted into the 
 severest punishments. 
 
 Nor was this all ; the generalizing system of 
 Stephen Grey often neutralized what might 
 otherwise have been agreeable, by bestowing 
 it upon the wrong person. For instance, 
 
THE IRON RULE. 71 
 
 Allan, who seemed born to protect what was 
 helpless, and to love what was capable of 
 loving him, had found a beautiful spaniel 
 struggling for its doomed life against the slip- 
 pery banks of a river, to which it had been 
 consigned as a supernumerary in the establish- 
 ment of a neighbouring farmer. This dog he 
 had carefully concealed from his father's eye ; 
 but it followed him in all his rural rambles, 
 and whenever he sat down upon a bank to 
 muse, or botanize, or collect the beauties of 
 the wide landscape into an ideal picture, his 
 little friend lying down beside him, would rest 
 its head upon his knee, while looking up into 
 his face, it seemed to thank him for the life 
 he had rescued from destruction. 
 
 It happened one day, when Allan had wil- 
 fully stolen from his tasks to ramble in the 
 fields, the afternoon being beautifully fine, and 
 his poor dog howling for a walk, that his 
 father returned some hours earlier than usual, 
 and abruptly entering the school-room, found 
 
72 HOME, OR 
 
 all dutifully seated at their studies except the 
 luckless Allan, whose vacant stool excited 
 immediate remark and inquiry. 
 
 James, who had been piqued at the little 
 deference shown to his authority, and who 
 .could sometimes tell the whole truth, when a 
 part would have done as well, described in no 
 measured terms the delinquency of his brother. 
 In another moment Stephen Grey was ra- 
 pidly pacing the path to which a gardener 
 directed him, in pursuit of the truant ; and 
 just as Allan stooped to give the last lingering 
 stroke to the silky sides of his favourite pre- 
 vious to their return home, his father, clad in 
 the full terrors of magisterial authority, stood 
 before him. 
 
 "Whose dog is that?" was the first question 
 that passed his lips. 
 
 " Mine," said Allan, actually trembling, not 
 for himself, but for his friend. 
 
 A few more questions followed, as to where 
 and how the animal had been procured, and 
 
THE IRON RULE. 73 
 
 then the party Avalked silently to the house, 
 the dog all the while, (as such creatures will, 
 when they are wished at the antipodes, so 
 that they are not seen,) making himself as 
 conspicuous as he could, by running before 
 them in the path, barking, cocking his tail, 
 and even jumping up to the powerful hand of 
 Stephen Grey. 
 
 " The fellow is possessed," said Allan to 
 himself; but they soon reached the stable- 
 yard, where his father calling to one of the 
 grooms, bade him tie a weight to the dog's 
 neck, and cast him without delay into the 
 deepest pond. 
 
 A hery glow of passion, as burning and as 
 deep as ever wrecked the human mind, rushed 
 to the cheek and the brow of the indignant 
 boy. He saw his favourite lick the hand of 
 his destroyer, while the man in brutal tones 
 bade him lie down and be hanged. 
 
 " If the dog must die, it shall be by my 
 liand," said Allan, and darting forward, he 
 
 VOL. I. E 
 
74 HOME, OR 
 
 plunged a knife into its heart. A burst of 
 childish tears gushed from his eyes as quickly 
 as the life-blood followed from the wound, and 
 seating himself upon the ground, he su; ported 
 the head of the dying animal, nor ceased from 
 his caresses till the last agony was past. 
 
 Stephen Grey and his groom were equally 
 at a loss to account for this extraordinary 
 scene. It is probable the father had some 
 compunctious visitings about the means he had 
 made use of to correct the extravagant propen- 
 sities of his child, for he never again mentioned 
 the affair of the dog ; but twelve months after- 
 wards, when his son James had given him 
 peculiar satisfaction by his uniformly orderly 
 and economical habits, as a reward for his 
 exemplary conduct, he made him a present of 
 an animal of the same species ; while James, 
 who had little partiality for any living thing 
 except himself, looked as much at a loss how 
 to be grateful, as a beggar, who in asking for 
 bread, should receive a stone. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 75 
 
 There is no wonder that with such indubi- 
 table proofs of his maladministration constantly 
 occurring, Stephen Grey should be led at times 
 to question the efficacy of his own rules ; but 
 unfortunately it was not in his nature to change 
 them. We have already said that he knew 
 nothing of the human heart in general, and 
 having effectually removed himself from the 
 confidence of his children, it was too late to 
 learn the nature of theirs. Thus he was unable 
 by any reasoning, or calculation, to account 
 for the fact, that as they advanced in years, 
 and might be supposed more capable of under- 
 standing what was due to him, not only as 
 a master and a parent, but also as a man of 
 personal dignity and power, they one and all 
 showed symptoms of increased desire to trans- 
 gress the wholesome laws prescribed by his 
 wisdom, and enforced by his authority. Occa- 
 sional outbreakings of juvenile waywardness 
 he could have borne, because the prompt un- 
 sparing punishment he deemed it his duty to 
 
 E 2 
 
76 HOME, OR 
 
 inflict, served greatly to relieve his mind 
 from the mortification of insulted dignity ; but 
 there was one long disputed point on which, to 
 liis lasting vexation and disappointment, liis 
 children gained a final and decided victory. 
 
 Not far from the country house, where, a 
 short time before the death of his wife, Stephen 
 Grey had settled his family for the benefit of 
 pure air, and regular exercise, wa? a dilapida- 
 ted and irregular mansion, said to have been 
 part of an old abbey, and still bearing the 
 name of the Abbey Grange, occupied by an 
 Irish gentleman, and his son, a youth about 
 the age of Mary Grey. Nobody knew either 
 whence these people came, or how they lived ; 
 but Stephen Grey had shrewd suspicions, whicli 
 he took no pains to conceal from his family, 
 that having found it expedient to quit their 
 country after the last revolution, they still 
 held sentiments at variance with the establislied 
 government ; and that as to their means and 
 mode of living, they were such as respectable 
 
THE IRON RULE. 77 
 
 people who wished to stand well with the 
 world, would be wise to countenance as little 
 as might be, consistently with common civility. 
 
 These kind of insinuations, ambiguously 
 thrown out, had the natural effect of making 
 the old mansion and its few occupants, objects 
 of peculiar interest, and insatiable curiosity to 
 the young people. " Look! look! there are 
 lights in the upper windows of the Abbey," 
 — or " a carriage was seen this morning passing 
 through the Abbey gates," were annuncia- 
 tions of such momentous importance, as to 
 put an immediate stop to every other amuse- 
 ment ; nor was it to be expected that Terence 
 Malone, a wild hairbrained fellow, living within 
 half a mile of this accumulating mass of curi- 
 osity, should be loath to exhibit his hand- 
 some person and bold open countenance, to 
 the admiration of his wondering neighbours at 
 the hall. 
 
 In vain did Stephen Grey insist upon that 
 impertinent boy being discountenanced. He 
 
78 HOME, OR 
 
 seldom returned home without hearing the 
 whoop and halloo of Terence as he whistled up 
 his dogs, (a huge Newfoundland, and a little 
 wiry cross-grained terrier) before they cleared 
 the garden wall, and bounded across the fields 
 to the Abbey. Nor was this all. The boy 
 might be harmless in his frolic, and besides 
 there was the advantage of numbers in the 
 opposite scale to teach him better manners by 
 virtue of their example — ''but the father!" And 
 liere the rigid disciplinarian used to think with 
 a shrug of actual horror, of the little agile 
 figure he had once caught a glimpse of, with 
 popery and rebellion in his very gait. What 
 could he do — what would be left for him to do, 
 if the father should make advances towards 
 his acquaintance ! 
 
 Nor was the thing he so greatly feared, slow 
 in coming upon him. Mr. Malone did make 
 advances, and he wore powder, and a pigtail, 
 and was moreover a reputed violin player. 
 
 Some dispute had occurred between this 
 
THE IRON RULE. 79 
 
 personage and the tax gatherer, and Mr. Grey 
 bemg the general umpire on such occasions, 
 the adventurous Irishman, who would have 
 given up his title to a dukedom at a civil, or 
 pitiful request, but who, like Hotspur, would 
 not yield a hair when demanded as a right, 
 actually intruded his unwelcome person within 
 the domicile of Mr. Grey. 
 
 It was a few hours previous to the potent 
 gentleman's return. The young people were 
 as happy as laughter and liberty could make 
 them, with Terence in the midst looking the 
 very soul of merriment and fun. To him the 
 appearance of his father was no interruption, 
 whatever might be his amusement, for business 
 he had none ; but the rest of the party stood 
 a little on punctilio, until the countenance of 
 the stranger assured them that whatever might 
 be the jest, or the game, he was ready to take 
 a leading part in it, and to be as active and as 
 merry as the youngest amongst them. 
 
 Delighted with the many antics he played 
 
80 HOME, OR 
 
 off to amuse the laughing- Harriet, who from 
 that hour became his favourite, the party were 
 soon at ease ; for if romping, dancing, singing 
 comic songs, and exhibiting various tricks of 
 sleight of hand, in which Mr. Malone was a 
 great adept, will not break down the barrier 
 of juvenile reserve, there is indeed little hope 
 of the acquaintance ripening into intimacy. 
 
 James alone stood aloof, determined to take 
 no part in the scene, that he might with a 
 better grace describe it to his father, who, as 
 ill luck would have it, rode up to the door 
 without being heard, and entered his usually 
 silent mansion, just as a peal of laughter, such 
 as he thought could belong only to the orgies 
 of a bacchanalian club, rang througli the 
 echoing hall, and stunned the ears usually so 
 alert to detect his step. 
 
 Never was the stern countenance of Stephen 
 Grey betrayed into so wide a deviation from 
 its wonted stagnation, as when he opened 
 the door of his own parlour on that eventful 
 
THE IRON RULE. 81 
 
 day. It seemed as if the upper features of his 
 face were taking leave of the lower, and that 
 his spare and hollow cheeks, elongated by the 
 separation, would never be compressed within 
 their proper limits again. To recognize any 
 distinct and separate object was impossible, 
 for the twilight of a winter's evening, that 
 hour so congenial both to merriment and 
 gloom, obscured the distant walls of the apart- 
 ment, while the red glimmer of a blazing iire 
 made those who remained within the circle of 
 its genial glow look more wild and fantastic 
 than they really were ; at the same time that 
 its flickering and uncertain light revealed the 
 disorderly state of the furniture, some articles 
 of which lay topsy turvy in prostrate humili- 
 ation before their indignant proprietor. But 
 what was worse to be endured than all, and 
 what made the scene look most like an infernal 
 dream, was the spectacle of the obnoxious little 
 personage seated in the midst, with the poker 
 in his hand, quavering it in the air,, as an 
 
 E 3 
 
82 HOME, OR 
 
 accompaniment to the wildest passages of one 
 of the national airs of the rebellion, as he 
 sung, alternately with the desperation of a 
 bravado, and the comic whimsicality of a 
 merry andrew. 
 
 James and Mary Grey were the first to 
 perceive the awful vision of their father stand- 
 ing in the open door-way ; and while one 
 advanced to prove his own personal disthiction 
 from the lawless mob, the other spread a lull 
 over the party as quickly and as softly as if 
 she had borne the magic wand of a fairy queen. 
 
 Mr. Malone no sooner perceived what had 
 taken place, than, without any mr.rks of con- 
 cern or consciousness of doing wrong, he 
 sprang from his seat, and advanced to meet 
 the master of the house, with a manner so 
 gentlemanly and independent, and apologies 
 for the breach of privilege he had committed 
 so easily expressed, that Stephen Grey was 
 completely puzzled to decide how the whole 
 affair ought to be treated. In fact, he was 
 
THE IRON RULE. 83 
 
 never so quick-witted as to be ready for an un- 
 precedented occasion ; and if those with whom 
 he associated, could but once drive him from 
 his authoritative position, he was not more 
 difficult to deal with, or more to be dreaded, 
 than other men. 
 
 The first thing he did, in the present in- 
 stance, was to order lights ; for his perceptions 
 being naturally strong, but extremely limited 
 in their scope, he needed all the aid that could 
 be derived from external circumstances, to 
 enable him to ascertain precisely what was the 
 nature of his enemy, or how far that enemy 
 had advanced on debateable ground. 
 
 Obedient to the word of command, the 
 young people, happy to escape from a dilemma, 
 all ran to bring the lights, for once in their 
 lives glad to fall in with the peculiar temper 
 of their father, who after issuing the simplest 
 order, for which one pair of hands were more 
 than sufficient, never could be satisfied, so long 
 as a single agent remained inactive. Had the 
 
84 HOME, OR 
 
 members of his family been numerous enough 
 to merit the name of legion, he would have had 
 them all run to fetch a candle, or a slipper, at 
 the first mention of his wants, — a plain proof 
 that he valued obedience before his own per- 
 sonal accommodation. 
 
 The present occasion was, perhaps, the first 
 in his life, on which his choice would have 
 been different ; for such was the whispering 
 of those who had run for lights, such the hur- 
 rying and agitation of the fearful, and such the 
 tittering of those who cared for none of these 
 things, that it seemed as if the two gentlemen 
 would never be relieved from the obscurity in 
 which they were mutually involved. 
 
 Stephen Grey stirred the fire, — his com- 
 panion remarked upon the weather ; he pulled 
 the bell, — the Irishman had something to say 
 about the tardiness of domestics ; he walked to 
 the window, — his enemy followed, and looked 
 out upon the lawn as he did, though there was 
 nothing to see; he took a seat by the table, — 
 
THE IRON RULE. 85 
 
 in a moment, the undaunted intruder was 
 seated opposite. At last the lights appeared, 
 and were welcomed with a growl of impa- 
 tience by Stephen Grey, who, after carefully 
 snuffing the candles, looked full into the face 
 of his visitor, with an expression which said, 
 " Well, sir, what do you want with me?" 
 
 The business was soon explained, and in a 
 manner so concise and shrewd, that the master 
 of the house began to look upon his guest as 
 quite a different sort of thing from what he 
 had appeared by twilight. We will not in- 
 sinuate that the secret of his metamorphosis 
 lay in the fact of his having politely and re- 
 spectfully appealed to the judgment of his 
 neighbour, as to that of a person of sage 
 counsel and experience, to whom the eyes of 
 the people were raised. Far from us be the 
 thought that a mind like that of Stephen Grey 
 could be tainted with the vulgar weakness of 
 vanity ; but so it was, that when the young 
 people one by one stole back into the room, 
 
86 HOME, OR 
 
 they found their father, in tones of the greatest 
 composure and urbanity, conversing with the 
 very man upon whom they had been taught to 
 look with horror and contempt, nay, even with 
 a faint suspicion of finding him encumbered 
 with a cloven foot. 
 
 The first sight of Mr. Malone convinced 
 them that he had one eye for their father, and 
 one for them ; for between the grave looks 
 which appealed to Mr. Grey as his acknow- 
 ledged superior, a bright twinkling glance 
 directed to the children, seemed to say, " Leave 
 me alone to manage the old gentleman, and 
 when once established as a friend and neigh- 
 bour, we will have many a romp, and many a 
 merry game." 
 
 Before the serious subject of taxation had 
 been sufficiently discussed, tea was announced, 
 for the family at the hall adhered to the old 
 fashioned custom of early meals, and though 
 Terence and his father had not yet dined, they 
 cheerfully acceded to a formal proposition 
 
THE IRON RULE. 87 
 
 from their host, for their joining him at 
 the tea table ; where, despite the solemnizing 
 influence of the master of the ceremonies, a 
 few jokes passed between the father and the 
 son, whose Irish blood was not to be tamed 
 down by looks however stately and imposing ; 
 while those whose future hopes were involved 
 in the event, peeped about to see how these 
 preludes to a new and strange acquaintance 
 were received. 
 
 When the table was again cleared, and the 
 juvenile members of the household were seated 
 quietly at their books, with every appearance 
 of decorum, except that a suppressed titter 
 sometimes escaped from the corner of the 
 room to which Terence and Harriet had 
 retired, the two gentlemen went on with the 
 business of the evening ; until, all being settled, 
 and the state of the country, both atmospheric 
 and political, (though of the last little could 
 be said with safety,) duly glanced over, Mr. 
 Malone rose with great gravity from his chair, 
 
88 HOME, OR 
 
 and advancing to the middle of the room was 
 about to make a most respectful and humble 
 obeisance to the master of the house, when a 
 peal of laughter no longer to be restrained, 
 burst from the juvenile party. 
 
 Stephen Grey was no less astonished than 
 enraged, that such ebullitions of folly should 
 derange the peace and decorum of his fire-side ; 
 but no sooner had his eye discerned the real 
 cause, than wonder gave place to indignation, 
 for there stood his guest before all his family, 
 struggling, though at the disadvantage of 
 having his enemy in the rear, with a furious 
 and frightened kitten, which Terence and 
 Harriet had contrived to attach to his cue, 
 and which, while he was seated, remained 
 quiet enough, 
 
 "unconscious of its tether." 
 
 It was a most inappropriate conclusion to 
 an auspicious evening ; for the bulwarks Mr. 
 Malonc had been at the pains to raise around 
 
THE IRON RULE. 89 
 
 his own gravity, all gave way, and, laughing 
 as heartily as the rest, he offered his hand 
 to his host with the ridiculous appendage 
 still dangling behind his person, and then 
 swinging it to and fro, retreated with rapid 
 strides through the hall, until Harriet scam- 
 pered after him as he had anticipated, to 
 receive her favourite, accompanied with a good 
 night, and a hearty kiss. 
 
90 HOME, OR 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 " I WILL never forgive you," said the good- 
 natured Irishman, the next time he met Har- 
 riet in their rambles, " I will never forgive 
 you for making me ridiculous before your 
 father. I had acted my part to admiration, 
 and you let me down before I left the stage." 
 
 This allusion to the stage brought on a dis- 
 sertation upon private theatricals, which Te- 
 rence followed up with a glowing description 
 of some evenings he had enjoyed the last time 
 he was in Dublin with his father, when he had 
 taken a prominent part in a delightful little 
 drama, got up for the occasion by a friend of 
 
THE IRON RULE. 91 
 
 theirs. " And then, had you seen Cathleen," 
 he exclaimed, for his thoughts were always 
 turning to his sister, " Cathleen was a queen, 
 and with my mother's diamonds on her brow, 
 she looked as if born to rule the world." 
 
 " Nonsense, you foolish fellow," said his 
 father, evidently not displeased to hear such 
 encomiums upon his daughter, though aware 
 how inapplicable they were to her peculiar 
 style of beauty ; " Cathleen looks more like a 
 vestal, than a queen, and, poor child," he ad- 
 ded, in a low and altered tone, "she is more 
 likely to be one too." 
 
 It was the first time their new friend had 
 exhibited the slightest sign of deep feeling, 
 and Mary and Allan exchanged glances, which 
 expressively acknowledged him to be a kind 
 father, with all his levity. From this hour 
 they loved him better ; and as he almost inva- 
 riably spoke of his daughter with a serious 
 tenderness that redeemed his character in their 
 kindly-judging hearts, Cathleen became with 
 
92 HOME, OR 
 
 them, as well as with her doating father and 
 fond brother, an object of peculiar interest. 
 
 " But when will she come and live amongst 
 us V was the question with which Allan im- 
 patiently interrupted the praises of the ideal 
 heroine ; when the old man used to smile and 
 shake his head, and ask whether he thought 
 the den of two bears like him and Terence was 
 a fit home for a delicate young lady. 
 
 An acquaintance commenced between those 
 who were so much in want of society as the 
 Greys, and their neighbours, was not likely to 
 fall away for want of mutual efforts to improve 
 and strengthen it. Harriet would, have been 
 the first to enter the interdicted precincts of 
 of the Abbey, but that Allan, not exactly liking 
 the forwardness of her proceeding there alone, 
 offered to be her escort, nor could Mary's 
 gentle entreaties prevail with them to give up 
 this pleasure. 
 
 " Why should I not visit the old gentleman 
 who is so kind to me ?" said one. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 93 
 
 " Why should I not associate with Terence in 
 his own home, as well as in ours?" said the other. 
 And, accordingly, with a very trivial errand, 
 they made their first call upon their neighbours. 
 
 What might be the impressions made upon 
 Harriet's mind by the interior of the building, 
 whose ivied walls the young people had so 
 often admired in their rambles, it would be 
 difficult to say, for she took few away with her 
 besides those of a rent frock, a bonnet rifled of 
 its strings, and the confused remembrance of 
 an hour of enjoyment. But her brother's was 
 a totally different temperament, and time had 
 never yet unfolded to him a scene of deeper 
 interest than the venerable edifice, within 
 which he now stood for the first moment in 
 his life. The half-antique, half-modern aspect 
 of every thing around him, bewildered his 
 imagination by presenting the past and the 
 present at one view. He had read of the 
 severe and secluded habits of those who in 
 former times retired to such mysterious sane- 
 
94 HOME, OR 
 
 tuaries to shut out the world, and forget them- 
 selves to stone ; but here he beheld the very 
 walls that had witnessed their secret penance, 
 and trod upon the same marble floor where tlie 
 prostrate devotee had fallen in utter self-abase- 
 ment. Few as were the vestiges now remain- 
 ing to 'mark the former character of the 
 building, Allan had an eye to perceive and 
 magnify them all ; and while Terence led him 
 along the cold damp passage terminating in a 
 dubious looking sitting-room, he would fain 
 have lingered behind to spy out every arch, 
 and pillar, or mutilated countenance grinning 
 out from the mouldering stone, as if to prove 
 that mockery too can endure the lapse of 
 time, as well as strength, solemnity, and 
 gloom. 
 
 The apartment usually occupied by Terence 
 and his father was properly a library, the 
 whole of one side of the room being appropri- 
 ated to the accommodation of an extensive and 
 heterogeneous assortment of books. In strict 
 
THE IRON RULE. 95 
 
 propriety we ought scarcely to speak of them 
 as accommodated, unless being placed in posi- 
 tions as various as their titles be most con- 
 ducive to the repose of talent in its literary 
 form. A cursory inspection of the apartment, 
 more especially of the library, was sufficient to 
 convince the beholder that Mr. Malone was not 
 a man of exclusive tastes. On one dusty shelf 
 stood Blackstone, bearing on his shoulders 
 Arabian Nights Entertainments. From another 
 the national music of the Green Isle seemed 
 ready to precipitate itself in successive ava- 
 lanches to the floor ; and a little higher up 
 the Whole Duty of Man reclined obliquely be- 
 tween the works of Jean Jaques Rousseau, and 
 Lawrence Sterne. A carpet from whose dusky 
 texture the colours of the rose and the lily 
 were totally obliterated, a hearth rug on which 
 two dogs were sleeping, a mantel piece bruised 
 and broken as if it had stood the battery of a 
 feudal siege, a table loaded with magazines and 
 newspapers, a dozen chairs of diverse form and 
 
96 HOME, OR 
 
 size, a closet with the door wide open, prints 
 from the first masters in dingy coloured frames, 
 fishing tackle, guns, straps, baskets, and a 
 guitar with broken strings, constituted the 
 sum total of the furniture of the sitting room 
 at the Abbey Grange ; which, devoid as it was 
 both of elegance and neatness, presented a per- 
 fect picture of that which all boys, and some 
 men, prefer to every other kind of luxury — a 
 room to do what one likes in. 
 
 " You see," said Terence, ushering in his 
 friend, " we are not very neat, or very stylish 
 here, but amongst my father's books, Allan, you 
 will find a feast ;" and he took down volume 
 after volume, each one of which appeared to 
 his delighted guest to contain a mine of never 
 ending happiness. His attention riveted, and 
 his imagination fired with the prospect of the 
 enjoyment awaiting him, Allan could think of 
 nothing but the books ; and to all the hints 
 thrown out by Terence, that they would be 
 there on his return from the garden, that they 
 
THE IRON RULE. 97 
 
 would do just as well another time, and that 
 there were many other things he had not yet 
 seen, Allan answered only by opening another, 
 and another, until at last his ear caught the 
 delightful assurance — " My father will lend 
 you anything you like." 
 
 ** Will he ?" exclaimed Allan, his eyes spark- 
 ling with ecstacy, " I will take the greatest 
 care of them." 
 
 " Oh ! never mind about that," said Terence, 
 " we are not very particular, as you may see. 
 Here — we will send you a wheelbarrow full ;" 
 and so saying he emptied a basket of newly- 
 gathered pears upon the floor, and in their 
 place huddled together as many books, indis- 
 criminately collected, as the basket would con- 
 tain. 
 
 Allan was indeed a wealthy man when he 
 returned home that morning, but the real 
 benefit of his riches was no less questionable 
 in his case, than in a thousand others, about 
 which we mourn and moralize, and yet would 
 
 VOL. I. F 
 
98 HOME, OR 
 
 scarcely refuse to be ourselves the person 
 whose safety is endangered. 
 
 With a mind constituted like Allan Grey's such 
 reading as the Abbey library afforded, proved 
 like fuel to a latent fire. Here were legends 
 of the days of chivalry, chronicles of love and 
 glory, and tales of the hero, and the broken 
 hearted maiden ; while every page glowed 
 with the fiery transcript of those deep and 
 burning passions, to which the human heart is 
 liable at all times, and under every aspect of 
 society. Upon this world of new thoughts, 
 and new sensations, the enthusiast entered 
 with insatiable appetite, regardless of the 
 consequences, which became more fatal to his 
 peace, from his inexperience, from the zest 
 which secrecy gives to our stolen joys, and from 
 the melancholy fact of his mind not having 
 been previously fortified and strengthened by 
 wholesome and natural food. 
 
 Buried in the pages of his favourite authors, 
 Allan lost sight of all the world except his 
 
THE IRON RULE. 99 
 
 sister Mary. With her he held too deep a 
 sympathy to be willingly separated in his en- 
 joyments ; and choosing out of his hidden trea- 
 sures the purest and those most suited to her 
 taste, he submitted to her attention just so 
 much of his literary amusements as served to 
 increase the refinement and susceptibility of 
 her feelings, without undermining their firm- 
 ness or shaking their stability. 
 
 In the household of Stephen Grey the 
 reading of all works of fiction was strictly 
 forbidden. Novels were spoken of with a 
 condemnation as unsparing as that levelled 
 against highwaymen and banditti ; and plays, 
 though seldom named, when they were touched 
 upon, were represented under a colouring of a 
 still deeper dye. Nor had this rigid discipli- 
 narian more toleration for the parents, who, 
 selecting from such works the wisest and the 
 best, sometimes allowed them to be read aloud 
 in their families as a wholesome relaxation. 
 
 We will not occupy the time of the reader 
 F 2 
 
100 HOME, OR 
 
 by discussing the morality of this point. 
 There are parents who would shudder at the 
 idea of allowing such license in their families, 
 and if their children can be so far excluded 
 from the world as never to hear works of 
 fiction named with interest, especially if they 
 are wholly ignorant of the exercise of the 
 faculty of imagination either for good or for 
 evil, these restrictions may answer the desired 
 end. But if such children have once had their 
 imaginations set afloat by a song, a poem, a 
 nursery tale, or even by the quiet musing of 
 indolent and unoccupied hours, let their 
 jiarents look well beneath the pillow, the 
 desk, and sometimes the folded apron, for the 
 stolen volume, whose pages are often the most 
 pernicious which a circulating library, a secret 
 friendship, or an intimacy with a treacherous 
 domestic c£n afford. 
 
 Had Stephen Grey adopted the plan pursued 
 by his cousin Lee, of reading to her family 
 select passages from authors of the most dis- 
 
THE IRON RULE. 101 
 
 tinguislied merit, whether the truths they con- 
 veyed passed through the medium of fiction 
 or fact, he would never have seen the light 
 glancing at midnight below Allan's chamber 
 door, and might thus have spared himself and 
 his son the violence of tearing open all his 
 locks, and the injustice of committing to the 
 flames the property of another, which he had 
 no right to destroy. 
 
 This circumstance, however, did actually 
 transpire, with many aggravations of tone, 
 manner, and expression, well calculated to 
 instil hatred and rebellion into the unformed 
 mind. But Allan, though hasty in his temper, 
 and reckless of consequences to himself, had 
 nothing malignant in his nature. The blow 
 that would have hardened another boy into 
 resistance and revenge, had the effect of 
 deeply wounding him ; and from his father's 
 hand it fell so often, and with such unsparing 
 violence, that he could not doubt the fact of 
 his being the object of his 23eculiar disapproba- 
 
102 HOME, OR 
 
 tion and distrust. Naturally open and com- 
 municative as lie was, so false a construction 
 was often put upon his words and actions, and 
 motives so repulsive to his feelings, attributed 
 to him, that the energies of his mind were 
 checked, his hopes depressed, and, had such a 
 thing been possible, his affections would have 
 been chilled. Instead of this, however, he 
 seemed to be softened by his very sadness into 
 still greater tenderness for the few objects he 
 could, and dared love ; and Mary, yearning over 
 him like a bird over its wounded mate, longed 
 to stretch out her feeble wings, and if she 
 could not shelter him, to share the blow that 
 was levelled at his peace. Nor was Terence 
 backward in the hour of sufferino: or danger, 
 to stand by his friend ; for with all his love 
 of freedom, his heedlessness, and his untiring 
 (|uest of pleasure, the Irish youtli possessed a 
 heart that hurried him perpetually into the 
 difficulties of those he loved, and in the present 
 instance brouglit down upon him the supreme 
 
THE IRON RULE. 103 
 
 contempt of the man, whom, for the sake of 
 his friend, he would have done well to conci- 
 liate. 
 
 Mary was the only one in the family, except 
 James, who possessed any influence with her 
 father ; and though that influence was suppor- 
 ted by her own stability of conduct, and by an 
 early gravity, the consequence of being prema- 
 turely subjected to the burden of domestic care, 
 it was insufficient to defend her brother and 
 her friend. For Allan, from his want of fore- 
 thought, and from the strength of impulse under 
 which he generally acted, was so luckless ; and 
 Terence was so determined, lawless, and devoid 
 of fear, that her kind heart was perpetually 
 tortured for them both, with that feminine 
 anxiety that unfortunately enhances the affec- 
 tion to which it owes its pain, and its enduring 
 constancy. 
 
 Like other faithful and disinterested per- 
 formers of domestic duty, Mary, though con- 
 stantly making sacrifices for the good of 
 
104 HOME, OR 
 
 others, found her sacrifices undervalued, be- 
 cause they did not extend to partial favours 
 towards one, at the expense of another ; or 
 falsehood, where nothing less would conceal a 
 fault. Her part was to care for all, and she did 
 it at the cost of her own peace, excepting 
 only that essential portion of it arising from 
 a consciousness of acting for the best. 
 
 James Grey had little kindness in his na- 
 ture, but he sometimes assumed an appearance 
 of it towards his sister, to induce her to cloak 
 the errors which even he, with his modulated 
 tones and smooth countenance, had no hesi- 
 tation to commit in secret. 
 
 George Grey, whose kindness centred in 
 himself, would not pretend to more for any- 
 body ; but he could upbraid, and sometimes 
 in his passion, lay violent hands upon Mary, 
 because she refused to cover his thefts, his 
 idleness, or his other delinquencies, with a 
 lie. Harriet was passionate, wilful, heedless, 
 and wliolly intractable to Mary ; and Ellen, 
 
THE IRON RULE. 105 
 
 her peculiar charge, was yet too young to be 
 any thing but a source of affectionate soli- 
 citude ; but Allan was always gentle and con- 
 siderate, and Terence was always kind. Yes, 
 when ruder natures vented their spleen or 
 their revenge upon Mary, Terence was ever 
 ready with a blow for the offender ; and then, 
 folding his arms around her neck, he would 
 kiss off the tears from her cheek, till he forced 
 smiles and blushes to follow in their place. 
 
 It was when the intimacy between the two 
 families had attained a greater height than 
 Stephen Grey was at all aware of, that he 
 suffered business so far to interfere with his 
 wonted habits as to call him away from his 
 post of watchfulness for the sj^ace of four 
 or five days ; or, as he hinted to his chil- 
 dren in his parting charges, it might be for 
 a week. In vain did he lay before their 
 consideration the weight of responsibility that 
 would devolve upon them when his guiding 
 influence was withdrawn. Few of the faces 
 
 F 3 
 
106 HOME, OR 
 
 around him looked more serious than com- 
 mon, and none looked sorry, unless it were 
 Mary*s : for in her benevolent heart had grown 
 up a sort of affection for her stern father, that 
 could not let him depart from his own home, 
 to risk the chances and inconveniences of a 
 distant journey, without some touch of anx- 
 iety, and even grief. James, too, was seen 
 to wear a demure and downcast look, that 
 changed to the greatest extreme of satisfac- 
 tion his countenance was capable of express- 
 ing, as soon as the stately form of his father 
 had disappeared from his sight. 
 
 The apprehensions Mary could not help 
 entertaining, that the liberty to which they 
 were all left might be productive of conse- 
 quences by no means agreeable to herself or 
 safe to others, were not long in being fully 
 realized. Applications were made to her for 
 all sorts of forbidden things ; keys were 
 demanded which she had no power to re- 
 tain ; and a scene of general misrule and 
 
THE IRON RULE. 107 
 
 disorder ensued, to which those families alone 
 are liable whose obedience to a parent's wishes 
 has been made an irksome duty. 
 
 Before the first tumult had subsided, Terence 
 bounded into the room, and, as usual, quickly 
 securing Mary from insult by the strength of 
 his arm, and from reproach by the volubility 
 of his tongue, good humour and something like 
 good order were restored. 
 
 " I have come to propose something very 
 pleasant to you," he exclaimed; " we have 
 at least three days and nights of liberty to 
 calculate upon — we will act a play! Nay, 
 do not shake your heads — we will, we must ! 
 My father is altering two or three scenes from 
 some old comedy, I forget what. We have 
 a hoard of old fashioned dresses, out of which 
 we may equip ourselves ; and Mary, you know 
 the long room in the west wing of the Abbey, 
 it can be divided so as to make an excellent 
 stage." 
 
 " But we never saw a play," said Allan, 
 very much inclined to doubt his own abilities. 
 
108 HOME, OR 
 
 " Oh ! my father," replied Terence, " will 
 teach you all your parts ; and we have a cha- 
 racter exactly suited to Harriet, with her cur- 
 ling hair and laughing eyes. I had fixed upon 
 it for you, Mary, but my father thinks it will 
 suit Harriet better, and I am inclined to think 
 it will myself." 
 
 " Oh ! don't trouble yourself about me," 
 said Mary, " I shall never act upon any 
 stage." 
 
 " Mary means to tell,'' said George, sulkily. 
 
 " She means to do no such thing," said her 
 faithful companion, accompanying his words 
 with a smart box on the ear of the offender. 
 
 " No," replied Mary with perfect good 
 humour, " I will do my part off the stage, 
 and that shall be to help you all to dress ; 
 only I am afraid my father would not like it." 
 
 " He will never know," was the general 
 exclamation ; and it was one of too frequent 
 use to call forth any serious compunction. 
 
 No practical device that fell short of 
 sinful enormity, could have been at the same 
 
THE IROX RULE. 109 
 
 time so objectionable to Stephen Grey, and 
 so welcome to his children, as that which 
 now set their young pulses beating with the 
 anticipation of an enjoyment, as much beyond 
 their own means of procuring, as it exceeded 
 their warmest anticipations of delight. 
 
 All was now bustle and animation within 
 the walls of the Abbey. Dark closets and 
 secret depositories were ransacked, and long 
 hidden things brought to light, in number 
 and variety beyond both knowledge and cal- 
 culation. It was amusement enough for one 
 day, and might have lasted for many more, 
 to ascertain to what possible uses the sepa- 
 rate articles which composed this medley 
 could be applied ; but Mr. Malone, on the 
 following morning, reminded his young 
 friends, that as they had now but two safe 
 days before them, it was necessary they should 
 act more systematically, and apply themselves 
 a little to business. He and his son, accus- 
 tomed to entertainments of this kind, were 
 
110 HOME, OR 
 
 soon perfect in their parts ; but, of the rest, 
 some were diffident and some were awkward, 
 and it required two entire days more to fit 
 them for the scene of action. 
 
 Early subjection to unnatural restraint has 
 almost invariably the effect of rendering chil- 
 dren painfully embarrassed, under extraordi- 
 nary circumstances; and under strange tuition, 
 slow to learn. 
 
 With a more austere taskmaster, the Greys 
 would have found their novel undertaking 
 productive of infinitely more pain than plea- 
 sure ; but Mr. Mai one was so perfectly good 
 humoured, entered so feelingly into the juvenile 
 character, and was himself so undignified — so 
 completely one of the many^ that although at 
 first a little abashed by his natural fluency and 
 easy gesticulation, they were so entirely di- 
 vested of fear, as finally to adapt themselves 
 in all things to his tastes and wishes. It is 
 true he was not very critical or difticult to 
 please. Enjoyment was the end and aim of 
 
THE IRON RULE. Ill 
 
 his existence, and he had seen enough of the 
 world and of human nature, to know that 
 enjoyment is seldom of a social or expansive 
 nature, when subjected to the (^sorship of 
 strict and severe criticism. 
 
 The family of Stephen Grey had already 
 spent some of their happiest hours at the 
 Abbey; but this enjoyment shrunk into list- 
 less inanity when compared with the delicious 
 excitement of the three days preceding the 
 eventful evening of their play. They were 
 then easy and contented, but now they had an 
 aim in all they said and did — a common point 
 of union — a sum of happiness before them 
 which, by every one contributing his share, 
 could be raised to what they considered as the 
 highest pinnacle of felicity. In short, the 
 enjoyment their warm-hearted friend had 
 selected for them, by exercising their intellec- 
 tual faculties in conjunction with their social 
 feelings, seemed to raise them above them- 
 selves ; and while Terence made the halls of 
 
112 HOME, OR 
 
 the Abbey ring with his vociferous eloquence, 
 James, in conscious dignity, assumed the 
 prince. Even George was warmed into the 
 new emotlRfis of a fictitious hero ; Harriet 
 tripped on the light fantastic toe, and Allan 
 carefully closing the door of a large unoccupied 
 chamber, repeated his private rehearsals with 
 the genuine pathos of his susceptible, ardent, 
 and imaginative character. 
 : It was Harriet's part to personate a coquette, 
 and although far too young to understand the 
 complicated machinery necessary for the sup- 
 port of that mysterious fabric, so important in 
 the constitution of artificial life, she could look 
 mischievous, independent, and pert enough for 
 a coquette of her own, or any other age. 
 
 Allan was a minstrel, and such were the 
 delicious reveries called into existence by this 
 new and interesting scene, that it proved the 
 occasion of the first of those poetical eff'usions, 
 which subsequently marked him for one of the 
 luckless children of the Nine. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 113 
 
 All the others had parts assigned them 
 equally appropriate. The master of the cere- 
 monies figured as Harriet's fathej^ James 
 was a prince, of course soliciting ner hand ; 
 Terence was a bandit chief, and George the 
 Marplot of their different schemes. 
 
 And now the eventful time drew near. A 
 very successful rehearsal had been gone 
 through, and Mary, at her wonted task, flew 
 from one to another, arranging their dresses 
 and their hair, darkening the ill-defined eye- 
 brows, applying the all-important rouge, and 
 hearing the different actors for the fiftieth time 
 repeat the passages in which they felt least 
 confident. 
 
 A stage had been erected at one end of a 
 large but somewhat dilapidated apartment. 
 The green curtain and every thing was com- 
 plete, except the audience — a trifling deficiency 
 they had all overlooked, and therefore the 
 domestics were called in, and some of the most 
 trustworthy invited from the hall. At last 
 all were ready. With palpitating hearts they 
 
114 HOME, OR 
 
 heard the tinkling bell which called them to 
 their different posts. The music of three 
 village ^ers struck up-the curtain rose! 
 The lady appeared at the window of her bower, 
 and the minstrel, bending on one knee, wan- 
 dered with tremulous fingers over the chords 
 of his guitar. 
 
 If there be one moment of delirious excite- 
 ment surpassing all others, it is that in which 
 a youthful poet essays to sing, before a partial 
 audience, his own words. 
 
 Allan paused — perhaps he was startled at 
 the echo of his voice. In another moment, 
 he dropped the instrument from his out- 
 stretched hands, and stood erect, his eyes 
 glaring wildly as if some ghastly spectre 
 invisible to others had appeared to him. The 
 measured and now rapid tread of a well-known 
 step had reached his ear as it passed along the 
 stone passages of the abbey, and full before 
 liim, clad in all the terrors of insulted majesty, 
 stood the appalling form of Stephen Grey ! 
 
THE IRON RULE. 115 
 
 CHAPTER VI . 
 
 It was not often that Stephen Grey had 
 recourse to the strong arm to enforce obe- 
 dience, or execute vengeance ; but, on the 
 present occasion, his anger having being 
 heightened by arri^^ng, after a tedious jour- 
 ney, at a deserted home, and learning from 
 the few domestics who remained, that his 
 family were acting a play at the Abbey, we 
 are sorry to have to record that personal vio- 
 lence was not entirely withheld ; for there 
 stood his son Allan, the object of his continual 
 displeasure, so confounded with a sense of his 
 own delinquency, so temptingly helpless, and 
 so unresisting in his degradation, that the 
 
116 HOME, OR 
 
 indignant father strode upon the stage where 
 his poor boy stood motionless, as if rooted to 
 the spot by some mysterious spell, and seizing 
 the loose drapery which hung about his shoul- 
 ders, would have hurled him at once amongst 
 the astonished audience, but that, fortunately 
 for him, his minstrel's cloak gave way, and 
 remained as a trophy of victory in his father's 
 hand. 
 
 In the mean time, Harriet had communi- 
 cated the unwelcome tidings to her friends 
 behind the scenes ; and James, with a prudent 
 care over his own safety, which seldom for- 
 sook him, had taken the precaution to doff his 
 borrowed plumes, and hasten home, where he 
 might be ready to receive his father in his 
 own proper person. But he was the only one 
 of the party who had the presence of mind to 
 think of their appearance. The rest ran 
 hither and thither, directing hurried and 
 stolen glances towards the scene of terror, 
 but not daring to face the enemy, until Mr. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 117 
 
 Malone, cheerfully stepping forward, offered 
 himself as their champion. 
 
 '' Come, come," said he, " my honest com- 
 rades, spare your fears for real danger, and 
 your sorrow for your sins. If you never do 
 worse in your lives than act a private play, 
 you will have little need to blush before any 
 man. Come with me and face your father, 
 and never look in this way until you have 
 wronged your neighbour, or told a lie." 
 
 Encouraged by these words, the terrified 
 party advanced, Harriet clinging to the hand 
 of her protector, and Mary grasping firmly 
 that of Terence ; while George skulked after 
 them, his dejected countenance shaded by a 
 monstrous slouched hat, that gave rather a 
 ludicrous effect to his clumsy features. 
 
 Mr. Malone had scarcely a clearer con- 
 ception of the real character of his neighbour, 
 than his neighbour had of his. That a pa- 
 rent's anger at a harmless frolic, such as he 
 regarded the play, should be wholly unappeas- 
 
118 HOME, OR 
 
 able, was a thing beyond his calculation ; or, 
 if that anger were unreasonably violent for one 
 moment, he had no doubt but it would ex- 
 haust itself in the next. He therefore advanced 
 boldly, with the full confidence that it needed 
 only the sight of his children with their sor- 
 rowful countenances, to call forth all the 
 tenderness of the father in the heart of Stephen 
 Grey. 
 
 On entering the apartment appropriated to 
 the festivities of the evening, they found that 
 a general calm had succeeded to the first ebul- 
 litions of rage, which the terrors of Harriet 
 had somewhat exaggerated in recital. The 
 sound of the viol was no more, the audience 
 had glided away one after another, and in the 
 centre of the room stood Allan, trembling 
 under his frills and feathers, while his father 
 paced to and fro wondering what simpleton 
 would next appear. 
 
 Mr. Malone advanced, with the dramatis 
 personae around him. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 119 
 
 *' Sir," he began in a mild and conciliating 
 tone, but Stephen Grrey, who had first stood still, 
 and then, after looking him full in the face, as 
 if to strike him dumb, had glanced scornfully 
 at his embroidered dress, impatiently inter- 
 rupting him, said with a sneer, " Mr. Malone, 
 this is the first time I have entered your house, 
 and I trust it will be the last." 
 
 The wild dark eyes of Terence flashed fire 
 as he turned upon his father an appealing look, 
 that seemed to say, " Let us defend ourselves 
 from insult, at least." 
 
 But the temper of the elder Malone was 
 cast in a different mould. Incapable of any 
 deep or lasting passion, he saw no reason why 
 the various mal-occurrences of life should not 
 be passed over with a smile, and he answered 
 to his neighbour's most uncourteous remark, 
 "Two things are necessary, Mr. Grey, to 
 render any visit agreeable — the kindness of 
 the host, and the civility of the guest. One 
 of these requisites I am sorry to find wanting 
 
120 HOME, OR 
 
 on the present occasion, but I should be still 
 more sorry were the other not at my own com- 
 mand. You are but just returned from your 
 journey. Will you sit down with us to a cup 
 of coffee below, and we will talk over this 
 innocent frolic, and make you see that no 
 harm has been done, or intended?" 
 
 Stephen Grey looked rudely at him while 
 lie was speaking, and then replied hastily, 
 " Have you no puppets to sit down with you 
 and your son, that you must beguile my chil- 
 dren from their duty?" 
 
 ** Father!" said Terence, but his father laid 
 his finger on his lip, and Stephen Grey went 
 on — 
 
 " Mr. Malone, I used to think hardly of the 
 laws by which my country vainly attempted to 
 govern yours. I now see that private misrule 
 as well as public rebellion, need to be discoun- 
 tenanced by all honest men, and good citizens." 
 
 " Turn him out, father !" interrupted Terence 
 again, and this time not a finger only, but a 
 
THE IRON RULE. 121 
 
 whole hand was laid upon his mouth, while 
 even over the brow of Lis father there passed 
 a momentary cloud ; but suddenly recollecting 
 the extreme absurdity of this pompous decla- 
 mation in such a cause, he replied with a smile, 
 
 " Then good night, Mr. Grey. A counte- 
 nance that carries gloom along with it wher- 
 ever it goes, is cheerfully dispensed with. 
 Good night, too, my dear children," and he 
 held out his hand to them in succession as 
 they passed. " Remember the Irishman's 
 heart and home are both open to countenances 
 such as yours." 
 
 Terence, divided betwixt sorrow and rage, 
 accompanied the procession to the door as they 
 moved on, silent as a flock of sheep, not daring 
 to look back to their father who followed 
 closely in the rear as if more effectually to cut 
 off all communication with the enemy's out 
 posts. 
 
 "Good night," said Terence kindly to his 
 friends — " good night, sir," he added in a more 
 
 VOL. I. G 
 
122 HOME, OR 
 
 surly tone, as he glared upon Stephen Grey 
 with eyes that did every thing but flash actual 
 fire ; and then as the last sober foot descended 
 from the steps, he swung the door to, with a 
 thundering clash that echoed through the long 
 dark passages of the Abbey, and made the 
 startled owls come forth from the shelter of 
 their ivied home. 
 
 There are few cases in which we are so much 
 puzzled to understand each other, as in the 
 nature and depth of our early impressions. 
 None but the fireside circle who have occu- 
 pied the same place in infancy, can recall the 
 terrors of the iron grasp of one particular 
 hand, or the music of the voice that charmed 
 the rebel back after every transgression, and 
 rewarded him with tenfold tenderness. Thus 
 there are judicious parents having little to 
 recommend them to a superficial acquaintance, 
 who are tenderly, faithfully, and devotedly 
 beloved by their children ; and there are 
 others whose innate coldness, and private 
 
THE IRON RULE. 123 
 
 severity, escape the eye of the world, who are 
 feared and shunned as the most cruel tyrants 
 by the very bemgs it should have been their 
 pleasure and their duty to cherish, but whose 
 natural affections having been chilled and 
 blighted in infancy, it is not in the power of 
 parental authority to call forth again. 
 
 Terence Malone had lived on such familiar 
 terms with his father, that his feelings towards 
 him resembled those of a younger brother, 
 rather than a son ; and he was wholly at a 
 loss to conceive the state of utter subjection, 
 and unnatural fear to which he saw the Greys 
 reduced. He was not philosopher enough to 
 know that system is every thing in the manage- 
 ment of communities both large and small ; 
 and that the chains of habit are infinitely 
 stronger than any which can be imposed by 
 direct or personal force. 
 
 " Mr. Grey is a stern man," he remarked, 
 " but he will not — cannot, commit any bodily 
 violence upon his children. The laws protect 
 
 G 2 
 
124 HOME, OR 
 
 them from that, and in these happy times we 
 have no inquisition to fear. If I were Allan I 
 would show him how little I cared for his 
 majesty, and return the gripe of that cold bony 
 hand of his, with a gentle kick." 
 
 " You know very little about what you 
 would do, my good fellow," said Mr. Malone. 
 " In your own person I have very little doubt 
 of your being equal to the gentlemanly conduct 
 you have described ; but remember these poor 
 children have been under the same dominion 
 since they first began to think, and it would 
 be just as easy for them, with their impressions 
 and their associations, to break through the 
 unnatural restraint under which they suffer, 
 as for you with yours, to tremble at the sound 
 of your father's step." 
 
 Terence laughed aloud at the novel idea, 
 and Mr. Malone went on. "It is not always 
 the convent vow that keeps the recluse within 
 his cell. There are daring spirits who would 
 easily sever a single bond, but the customs to 
 
THE IRON RULE. 125 
 
 which we become inured, weave a thousand 
 cords around us, that grow into the vital part 
 of our nature, and only strengthen with the 
 lapse of time. It is possible these luckless 
 children may some time or other venture to 
 burst from their father's control, but they 
 will bear along with them, wherever they may 
 go, in whatever circumstances they may be 
 placed, a lamentable want of that bold enthu- 
 siasm, and undaunted energy which mark 
 the man of generous feelings and liberal edu- 
 cation." 
 
 " I think there is a good deal in what you 
 say," replied Terence, " for Allan, highly 
 talented as he is, seems always afraid of being 
 clever, and still more so of being eloquent. 
 He never finds himself speaking with warmth 
 and fluency, but he begins to blush and hesi- 
 tate, as if he were telling a lie ; and though 
 he draws beautifully, he is as much ashamed 
 of his sketches being seen, as if he were a 
 little school-boy called up to show a sum 
 he could not prove. Still there is Mary, so 
 
126 HOME, OR 
 
 excellent a creature, that one can scarcely 
 blame the education which has made her what 
 she is." 
 
 ** Mary is indeed unexceptionable as relates 
 to her conduct, but there is a quiet look of 
 self-immolation about her, that makes my very 
 heart ache when I look into her face ; and I 
 long to fold her to my bosom, and cherish her 
 with the fond warm feelings of a father. I 
 cannot bear that ' one so young and gentle 
 should be subjected to so much sorrow and 
 suffering as I know she bears. But Heaven is 
 gracious, and there is no doubt the poor child 
 has her pleasures, perhaps the more intense for 
 their rarity." 
 
 '* Yes, I am sure she has her pleasures," 
 exclaimed Terence with warmth, *' and will 
 have, so long as there remains one living thing 
 to be made happier by her kindness. And 
 now for your little friend Harriet, what say 
 you of the effect of Mr. Grey's discipline upon 
 such a temper as hers V* 
 
 "Ah! my good fellow," said Mr. Malone, 
 
THE IRON RULE. 127 
 
 with a prophetic shake of the head, " Har- 
 riet is a delightful child to play with, but 
 a character like hers, when her passions 
 strengthen, and her feelings expand, will need 
 some more powerful restraint than that of 
 mere authority. Already you see she heeds it 
 not, but spurns at it, and contemns it alto- 
 gether ; and when once her external fetters 
 are broken, she is at the mercy of every temp- 
 tation ; for I do not see that on any one point 
 her father's domestic solicitude has reached 
 her heart, except so as to make her either 
 sport with his anger, or elude his vigilance." 
 
 Such were the discussions often held by 
 Terence and his father, since their acquaint- 
 ance with the Greys had opened to the youth 
 a new view of human life ; and now that a 
 temporary separation had taken place, they 
 found more leisure for speaking on a subject 
 which had gradually become deeply interesting 
 to both. And, although Terence still harped 
 upon the efficacy of a rebellious kick, he felt 
 
128 HOME, OR 
 
 SO severely the loss of the society of his friends, 
 that for their sakes he would almost have con- 
 descended to humble himself to their father. 
 
 In the mean time all was dark and cloudy 
 within the dwelling to which they looked 
 with earnest longings to see the agile figure of 
 Allan Grey bounding over the lawn, as they 
 knew he would, in the first moment of escape 
 from the strictest prohibition. They looked, 
 however, in vain ; for an injunction, powerful 
 as the ban of an evil destiny, bound the luck- 
 less inmates of that prison-house to a scrupu- 
 lous abstinence from all intercourse with those 
 of the Abbey. 
 
 It had been a punishment in perfect accord- 
 ance with Stephen Grey's sentiments and 
 mode of acting, to compel his children, on the 
 evening of the play, to sit down with him at 
 table in their motley attire, and to make them 
 bear the keen inspection of his scrutinizing 
 eye under those indubitable marks of their 
 folly and disobedience. Unaccustomed on 
 
THE IRON RULE. 129 
 
 such occasions to use a greater number of 
 words than were necessary to the infliction of 
 a certain degree of pain, after a long and 
 solemn pause, he demanded of Allan where 
 he had learned to play upon that stringed 
 instrument. 
 
 ** I learned of Terence Malone," said Allan. 
 
 " An eligible tutor," was the laconic reply. 
 
 His next question, addressed to Mary, re- 
 lated to the part she had taken in the evening's 
 entertainment. 
 
 " I took no part in the acting," said she; 
 but suddenly recollecting that this answer did 
 not convey the whole truth, she added, " I 
 only assisted in dressing, and making prepa- 
 rations for the scenes." 
 
 " Then you were art and part, to all in- 
 tents and purposes, and just as culpable as 
 the rest." 
 
 " I was," said Mary. 
 
 " And did you assist in dressing, Mr. James?" 
 
 " No," was the ready and satisfactory reply. 
 G 3 
 
130 HOME, OR 
 
 " I am glad," observed his father, " to find 
 there is one rational and respectable being 
 amongst you." 
 
 James was silent, though a slight flush 
 passed over his countenance : for his con- 
 science told him that the eyes of all the party 
 were upon him, and that a more candid expla- 
 nation than this was expected ; and what was 
 of more importance to him, was likely enough 
 to be demanded. But still he was silent, and 
 as no one seemed inclined to betray his secret, 
 he began to look about him with more confi- 
 dence. George, however, had by this time, 
 gathered up his pouting lij^s, and shaped them 
 into a position for speaking the truth, when 
 a sharp kick under the table warned him of 
 the private retribution he must expect to 
 meet with, if he did. No more direct in- 
 quiries being made that night, after a solemn 
 and lengthy harangue upon the immorality of 
 theatrical amusements, the party separated ; 
 those who retained the badge of their delin- 
 
THE IRON RULE. 131 
 
 quency, well pleased to doff their borrowed 
 plumes. 
 
 At the breakfast table next morning, no 
 cheerful face was to be seen, but downcast 
 eyes, silent lips, and cheeks that bore the 
 traces of recent tears ; for the sentence had 
 gone forth, that no communion should be 
 held with the inmates of the Abbey, and still 
 smarting under the lash of their father's dis- 
 pleasure, it was too early to begin to dream 
 of disobeying his most imperative command. 
 
 Long and dismal was the first day of 
 privation to the little group, who had been 
 accustomed to extract more individual satis- 
 faction than they were themselves aware of, 
 from the forbidden source. 
 
 "Who will teach me to dance now ?" said 
 Harriet, always the first to speak of what 
 others could only feel. '* George, where will 
 you find peaches like those in the Abbey 
 garden? Allan, you will never be able to 
 finish Schiller's plays. And what will you 
 
132 HOME, OR 
 
 do, Mary, when any one speaks rudely to you, 
 without Terence to fight them for it ?" 
 
 " I shall do very badly," said Mary with a 
 sigh ; " but since it is my father's wish, suppose 
 we try to make the best of it, and if we show 
 no inclination to do what he really dislikes, 
 perhaps he will trust us in time to visit the 
 Abbey again." 
 
 " I know we can manage it," said James, 
 " if we all keep up a show of obedience." 
 
 "Ah! that is always your way," said George; 
 ^'you make a good show, and then do every 
 thing you like, without being found fault with. 
 You are just like the man in the play, that 
 Mr. Malone was reading. But I'll tell of you, 
 Master Surface, that I will." 
 
 A box on the ear, and an authoritative call 
 to morning lessons, soon silenced this redoubt- 
 able champion of truth ; and the routine of 
 their daily duties being gone through, with 
 more languor than usual, they preparejl for 
 the return of their father without pleasure, 
 and without hope. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 133 
 
 Stephen Grey had all the day been thinking 
 it was possible he might carry his severity too 
 far. Indeed, he had too much real regard for 
 his children to be quite satisfied with the 
 gloom under which he left them, imagining as 
 he did that it was in his own power to clear it 
 all away. To retract one iota of his injunctions 
 on the point of offence, would be to compro- 
 mise his dignity — a condescension to which he 
 never, on any occasion, bent his stubborn will. 
 But might he not gratify his children in some 
 other way ? iVnd he cast about in his own 
 mind to devise what prudent indulgence would 
 be most agreeable to them. They were fond 
 of company. Was there none but Irish society 
 to be had? Yes. He had two worthy friends 
 in the town, who had two well-behaved, well- 
 educated daughters, and as they had just 
 returned from boarding school, he thought it 
 would be the right time to ask them to spend 
 a few days at Welbourne House. 
 
 Full of the satisfaction this luminous idea 
 
134 HOME, OR 
 
 afforded him, Stephen Grey returned home 
 half an hour earlier than usual ; and when the 
 business of drinking tea had been discussed, 
 and his family had seated themselves in silent 
 gravity around the smooth bright table, he 
 opened the affair of the anticipated visit, in 
 his usually dry and formal manner. 
 
 To his great disappointment nobody looked 
 pleased, except James, and again the parental 
 bosom expanded itself to receive him within 
 the circle of its warmest affections. Harriet 
 smiled — nay, even laughed ; but it was with 
 anything rather than pleasure, for the absur- 
 dity of inviting two town-bred misses, with 
 whom they had never exchanged a word, 
 struck her as being irresistibly ridiculous. 
 
 *' You must have all things ready for their 
 reception," added Stephen Grey, " for they 
 return with me to-morrow." 
 
 " To-morrow !" exclaimed Mary, with some- 
 tliing like a gasp of horror. 
 
 *' Yes, to-morrow, without fail," replied her 
 
THE IROX RULE. 135 
 
 father hastily. " If I were to invite Terence 
 Malone to meet them, I suppose you would 
 look more hospitable." 
 
 Mary blushed the deepest crimson, from 
 indignation as well as shame, for humble as 
 she was in all her individual pretensions, few 
 persons could feel an unjust or ungenerous 
 remark more warmly ; and after her blushes 
 had been succeeded by tears, she had the 
 additional pain of thinking that she had now no 
 kind friend to take her part ; for though Allan 
 was always willing, he was so much out of favour 
 himself, as not unfrequently to draw down 
 upon others the wrath he attempted to avert. 
 
 "A pretty joke!" exclaimed Harriet, as 
 soon as they were left at liberty to sjDeak with 
 freedom. " I think my father must be going 
 to marry again, and is bringing our young 
 step-mother to see how she likes us. For I 
 can see no other reason why he should invite 
 these misses." 
 
 *' I dare say he wishes to please us," said 
 
136 HOME, OR 
 
 Mary; " and perhaps if we were all to try to 
 think the best we can of his guests, we should 
 not find them so disagreeable as we expect." 
 
 " They are highly accomplished girls," ob- 
 served James, " and I should be truly glad if 
 my sisters were equally companionable." " 
 
 "That is exactly what I say," retorted Har- 
 riet. ** It is our own un worthiness that makes 
 us shrink before my father's friends. I doubt 
 none of the accomplishments of your angels — 
 that they play and sing divinely ; but you must 
 remember we have no piano, and if they should 
 wish to charm us with their sweet voices, I 
 don't know where we shall find an accompani- 
 ment, unless we send and borrow Mr. Malone's 
 fiddle for you.'' 
 
 The fact was, that with his wonted ignorance 
 of the tastes and feelings of those around him, 
 Stephen Grey had selected, for the sole pur- 
 pose of gratifying his children, two of the 
 least congenial companions he could have 
 found in the whole circle of his friends. On 
 
THE IRON RULE. 137 
 
 the first evening of their arrival, they came 
 down stairs in full dress to an early tea, as 
 simply set forth, as if it had been prepared 
 solely to quench the thirst, and allay the 
 hunger of a farmer's family. 
 
 Early meals were what the Misses Stanley 
 had been taught to consider as associated with 
 a degree of vulgarity not to be endured ; and 
 after looking round upon the plain solid fur- 
 niture of Welbourne House, they sipped their 
 tea with the most ineffable contempt. Scarcely 
 a word was spoken, even about the weather, 
 or the state of the roads, or the scenery 
 around Welbourne ; for the Greys were so 
 unaccustomed to converse before their father, 
 that they seldom, even on more inviting occa- 
 sions, risked so much as the most common- 
 place remark. James, alone, evinced his 
 grateful sense of the presence of the young 
 ladies, by silently placing before them large 
 plates of toast, and bread, from which their 
 delicate senses seemed to recoil ; while Ste- 
 
 ^ 
 
138 HOME, OR 
 
 phen Grey, just sufficiently alive to the real 
 state of things, to perceive that his children 
 were a little shy of making advances to their 
 new friends, exerted himself to be as talkative 
 as his limited acquaintance with the habits of 
 the female sex would allow. Still it was a 
 long evening to all parties, and well-bred as 
 the lady visitors were, Mary detected them 
 yawning and exchanging weary, listless glances 
 with each other, long before the usual time of 
 retiring to rest. 
 
 " I dare say you are tired with your ride," 
 said Mary. 
 
 The young ladies acknowledged that they 
 were, and candles being immediately lighted, 
 the parties were mutually relieved by an early 
 separation for the night. 
 
 We will not so far betray the secrets of the 
 private chamber, as to relate what passed 
 between Miss Stanley and her sister, as soon 
 as they found themselves alone ; because there 
 is some reason to suspect that the conviction 
 
THE IRON RULE. 139 
 
 of having been trepanned into a long dull 
 visit, from which there is no chance of es- 
 cape, will occasionally give rise to remarks, 
 neither just nor flattering to the entertainers 
 of such guests, who, on their part, are equal, 
 if not greater sufferers. It is suflacient to 
 say, that when the ladies rose on the following 
 morning, they saw, with extreme consterna- 
 tion, large drops of heavy rain upon the win- 
 dows ; and on looking out, perceived a general 
 cloudiness and humidity in the atmosphere, 
 betokening the miseries of close confinement, 
 or, in lieu of these, the still greater miseries 
 of soiled slippers, spotted satins, and uncurled 
 ringlets. 
 
 The only thing Stephen Grey could do that 
 morning to make every body more uncomfor- 
 table, he did, though quite unconsciously — he 
 took his son James with him to town ; for 
 James, from being the oldest in the family, 
 fully conscious of his advantages, and much 
 inclined to exhibit the first fruits of his gal- 
 
140 HOME, OR 
 
 Ian try in the presence of the Stanleys, had 
 begun to appear a little tolerable in their eyes ; 
 and ready as he always was to act upon the 
 principle of looking pleased with every propo- 
 sition emanating from his father, it cost him 
 no trifling exertion on the present occasion to 
 maintain his character, when the carriage was 
 at the door, the loud " Come James," vocife- 
 rated in the hall, and Miss Stanley smiling her 
 sweetest adieus beside the parlour fire. 
 
 The younger part of the family had been 
 graciously allowed an exemption from their 
 wonted studies for the sole benefit of their 
 guests ; and such was the use they made of 
 this indulgence, that no sooner had the sound 
 of the carriage wheels died away, than Allan 
 flew to his own chamber, there to complete a 
 beautiful drawing of the Abbey, George went 
 out to ramble in the fields with James's dog, 
 and Harriet amused herself as she could in any 
 way, and in any place that might secure her 
 from the presence of her father's guests. Mary 
 
THE IRON RULE. 141 
 
 as usual remained alone at the post of duty ; 
 and when she saw the young ladies draw on 
 their white kid gloves and seat themselves in 
 evident expectation of being entertained, her 
 heart sank within her, and she too would have 
 escaped, had she not been accustomed to con- 
 sider herself responsible for the credit as well 
 as the comfort of her father's family. 
 
 In vain did she cast her eye upon the book 
 shelves. Nothing was there but hard bound 
 histories seldom opened, and treatises on edu- 
 cation, and religious controversies, inter- 
 spersed with law and physic, all packed close 
 and tight, and looking as immoveable as the 
 wooden mockeries that constitute a sham 
 library. No beautiful ephemera, with its 
 gilded leaves, lay on the table or the work 
 stand, like a butterfly with folded wings, 
 waiting to display, at the first touch of fair 
 fingers, all the gorgeous beauties that can 
 delight the eye. No fanciful engravings of 
 female charms, some languid, some coquettish, 
 
142 HOME, OR 
 
 and some inspired, were spread forth to tempt 
 the idle jest, or passing comment. Except 
 for the furniture, all placed methodically, and 
 looking rather as if it had been recently arran- 
 ged, than recently used, the apartment presen- 
 ted an aspect of complete vacuity ; and Mary 
 feeling in her own mind something of the 
 same dead blank, which the company of uncon- 
 genial visitors infallibly produces, made some 
 apology for absenting herself, and went to her 
 domestic duties, determined if possible to 
 shake off the leaden weight that seemed to 
 grow upon her. 
 
 There was one object so dear, and in Mary's 
 eyes so beautiful, as seldom to meet her anx- 
 ious and affectionate gaze without inspiring 
 those thoughts and feelings of which the heart 
 holds the fondest and most faithful record. It 
 was her sister Ellen, her peculiar charge, now 
 escaping rapidly from the insignificance of 
 childhood, and coming forth arrayed in all 
 the loveliness of youth, and health, and hap- 
 
THE IRON RULE. 143 
 
 piness. Nor was this all. Nature had gifted 
 Ellen Grey with features, whose perfect sym- 
 metry defied alike the captiousness of the cri- 
 tical, and the sneer of the envious ; and with a 
 complexion not of the unnatural whiteness of 
 snow, but of a living, glowing, yet transj)arent 
 splendour, that combined the most exquisite 
 delicacy with the richest bloom. Her eyes 
 were hazel, and of uncommon brightness ; while 
 around her brow and temples there waved a 
 profusion of auburn curls, which, whether 
 carefully arranged or pressed down by the 
 hand of affection, sprung again into their wild 
 luxuriant beauty, to which nature had con- 
 tributed so much, that it was impossible for 
 art to take anything away. 
 
 Under the management of an experienced 
 and judicious mother, Ellen would probably 
 have been as amiable as she was lovely ; but 
 Mary, acquainted only with that part of edu- 
 cation which was marked by the exercise of too 
 great severity, believed she was doing the 
 
144 HOME, OR 
 
 greatest kindness to her sister by permitting 
 her to enjoy the opposite extreme of too much 
 indulgence. She was, besides, so disinterested 
 in her own feelings, and so willing to yield 
 any point in which her own gratification was 
 concerned, that Ellen scrupled not to make 
 the most unreasonable demands upon her 
 time, her patience, or her generosity ; and 
 seldom having found herself disappointed, she 
 learned, in time, to regard her own wishes as 
 of more importance than those of any other 
 human being. In addition to the disadvan- 
 tage arising from Mary's over indulgence, 
 Ellen was the youngest in the family, and a 
 beauty — two circumstances which she was by 
 no means backward in turning to her own 
 account ; and such was the attractiveness of 
 her light, playful figure, her easy, graceful 
 movements, and the indescribable loveliness 
 of her countenance, that she found a readv 
 passport to every acquaintance she deemed 
 it worth her while to cultivate, and seldom 
 
THE IRON RULE. 145 
 
 was denied any favour upon which her mind 
 happened to be fixed. 
 
 So entirely had Ellen hitherto been consi- 
 dered as Mary's charge, that, except on some 
 extraordinary occasions, her father's autho- 
 rity had scarcely crossed her will. When- 
 ever this happened, a tremendous explo- 
 sion was the consequence, from which Mary, 
 who could not protect, and dared not de- 
 fend her, was always the greatest sufferer. 
 Yet, like a fond mother, she felt her suffer- 
 ings, her tears and anxieties, all repaid by the 
 affectionate caresses of her wayward child ; 
 and when she led her by the hand into the 
 presence of her father's guests, it was with 
 full confidence that they would find in her an 
 object of sufficient admiration and interest to 
 engage their attention, without feeling the 
 want of books, or music, or any other amuse- 
 ment to which they might have been accus- 
 tomed. 
 
 Attracted by the richness and beauty of 
 
 VOL I. H 
 
146 HOME, OR 
 
 the Stanleys' dresses, Ellen made her wonted 
 easy, childish, and winning advances ; but 
 had the unexpected mortification of finding 
 them unnoticed. She approached their per- 
 sons on some trifling pretext, and the elder 
 lady drew up her shining silk frock, as if 
 to preserve it from the trampling of a 
 rude animal. Not easily repulsed, she next 
 gathered a flower and presented it to the 
 younger, who never could bear the scent of 
 geraniums. At home they had a green- 
 house on purpose for geraniums, where this 
 refined being assured the child she never en- 
 tered. What could poor Ellen do? She 
 persevered, however, for some time, believ- 
 ing it impossible but that such beautiful rings, 
 ribbons, and bracelets must be accompanied 
 with a great deal that was to be loved as well 
 as admired. 
 
 Mary all the while was looking on with the 
 jealous eye of a mother, who watches the in- 
 troduction of her child, and marks down, on 
 
THE IRON RULE. 147 
 
 a tablet, from which no after event can efface 
 the record, those individuals who have fondly 
 stooped to its caresses, as well as those 
 who have closed their eyes to its beauty, 
 and steeled their hearts against its winning 
 graces. 
 
 " These girls have no feeling," said Mary 
 to herself; " no sense of what is lovely; 
 none of those affections, without which it 
 would be wearisome to live ;" and thus, her 
 last resource having failed, she quietly took 
 out her work and sat down, in utter despair 
 of being able to entertain her guests. 
 
 There are many perplexities and trials in 
 rural life, which those who have heard only 
 of its Arcadian felicity are little aware of. 
 Amongst these, and by no means the least 
 important, is the endurance of visitors who 
 bring no work- — who seat themselves by ten 
 o'clock in the morning, a dead weight upon 
 their friends, and cast appealing looks around 
 them for the amusement with which they 
 
 H 2 
 
148 HOME, OR 
 
 should have provided themselves as soon as 
 they accepted the invitation. 
 
 Such visitors ought to be informed, that it is 
 not alwaj^s summer in the country, that straw- 
 berries are not always ripe, nor rose trees in 
 '* full bearing;" but that early meals, and 
 quiet days, with the absence of morning calls, 
 leave many hours for the uninterrupted exer- 
 cise of earnest thought, and interesting con- 
 versation, with which a rational and cultivated 
 mind is seldom wearied. 
 
 Heavy indeed was the first long day of the 
 Stanleys' visit at Welbourne House, both to 
 them and to Mary ; and many were the 
 anxious glances cast towards the merciless 
 time-piece, which told the tardy liours, im- 
 marked by any thing but their intolerable 
 length. 
 
 When James and his father returned in the 
 evening, the countenances of the ladies wore 
 a brighter character, for it sometimes happens 
 lliat a brother is far more capable of amusing 
 
THE IRON RULE. 149 
 
 than his sister, though not more highly gifted 
 with conversational powers. Still a dense 
 kind of heaviness hung over all the party, 
 which even Stephen Grey perceived ; and re- 
 collecting the reputed accomplishments of his 
 young friends, he began to question whether 
 something in their v/ay might not be brought 
 forward by his own children. He had heard, 
 by chance, of Allan's taste for drawing, but 
 deeming it an idle and unprofitable employ- 
 ment for one in his situation, had never so much 
 as cast his eye upon any of his performances, 
 with a viev/ to their merit. This was a time, 
 however, when he thought they might answer 
 the purpose of lawful amusement ; and Miss 
 Stanley might, perhaps, take the trouble to 
 give her opinion of them, and point out their 
 faults. The bell accordingly was rung, and 
 Allan sent for. 
 
 " Bring down your drawings for the young 
 ladies to see," said his father. 
 
 " Drawings ?" exclaimed Allan, as if alto- 
 
150 HOME, OR 
 
 gether unconscious of possessing any thing 
 that could be classed under such a name. 
 
 " Yes, drawings ! " replied his father ; '* the 
 Miss Stanleys have been instructed by the 
 first masters in town ; and if you must draw, 
 it will be an advantage to have their advice." 
 
 "Drawings?" said Allan again, in a tone 
 less inquisitive than desponding. 
 
 '* Why do you repeat my words ?" exclaimed 
 his father angrily. " Bring down your draw- 
 ings immediately, or I will bring them my- 
 self." 
 
 Allan answered not, but his burning cheek 
 betrayed the triumph of his resolution over 
 his fears. He knew there was no possibility 
 of appeal or delay, and that his most secret 
 hiding-places were not secure from violation. 
 
 No time was to be lost ; for when once Ste- 
 phen Grey perceived symptoms of obstinacy 
 or disobedience, the suspected person was 
 hunted down, and every means of escape, or 
 possibility of evasion, strictly and forcibly 
 
THE IRON RULE. 151 
 
 cut off. There was no time to cast a lingering 
 look upon tlie favourite scenes, — the faint 
 imperfect sketches of the sheltered bank, the 
 bridge, or the oak with knotted roots, beside 
 which he and Mary and Terence had been 
 so happy ; but sweeping them away with one 
 desperate effort, he hurried down to the 
 kitchen fire, and hurled them into the de- 
 vouring flames. 
 
 We have no wish to justify this act, or to 
 maintain that it did not betray an obstinate 
 recklessness, both dangerous and culpable in 
 one so young. But it was done without re- 
 flection, and resorted to as the only means of 
 escaping from a misery less endurable than 
 the loss, great as it unquestionably was to a 
 young artist ; and we have no hesitation in 
 saying, that had love instead of fear been the 
 prevailing sentiment in the heart of the boy, 
 it would never have been done. 
 
 The smothered anger with which Stephen 
 Grey, for the sake of his guests, received the 
 
152 HOME, OR 
 
 intelligence communicated by George, seemed 
 only to add to the increasing contempt he felt 
 for the general character of Allan. Another 
 disputed point, however, remained to be settled 
 between him and his children before he took 
 cognizance of this particular fault. This point 
 was the cultivation of a better acquaintance 
 with their visitors, and here he determined 
 neither to be outwitted, nor openly defied. 
 He had planned the visit entirely for their 
 pleasure, and while he remained fixed in the 
 belief that his influence ought to be such as to 
 compel them to be pleased, he had lately had 
 such serious misgivings on this subject, as to 
 deem it wisest to condescend a little to their 
 ^tastes. And for this purpose he stooped to 
 propose what he had no doubt would meet 
 with their cheerful accordance, and prompt 
 adoption. Having seen that his children were 
 so blindly and foolishly delighted witli the 
 prospect of a theatrical exhibition, as to grieve 
 for many days over the disappointment of 
 
THE IRON RULE. 153 
 
 being denied the fulfilment of their idle wishes, 
 he thought something of the same kind might 
 be got up in a rational and harmless way in 
 his own house, while it was honoured with the 
 presence of the Stanleys. His idea of the 
 entertainment went no farther than a few set 
 speeches, selected from the Roman history ; 
 and as Allan and Harriet had been the two 
 detected performers on the memorable night, 
 he fixed upon them to personate two Roman 
 senators, who should argue an important cause 
 involving the good of the commonwealth. 
 
 On the first communication of this plan, 
 Harriet burst into a laugh, which not even her 
 father's presence was able to restrain ; wdiile 
 Allan, after a look of blank astonishment 
 began to calculate the strength of his arm if he 
 should resist, or the swiftness of his feet if he 
 should run away. But recollecting the utter 
 fruitlessness of exerting his own bodily power, 
 and the many painful feelings his obstinacy 
 might occasion in the family, he submitted 
 
 H 3 
 
154 HOME, OR 
 
 silently, yet with the burning tears of indig- 
 nation sparkling in his eyes. The conscious- 
 ness of the ridiculous figure they should be 
 compelled to make, with their utter inability 
 to do credit to their parts under the restraint 
 always imposed upon them by their father's 
 presence, affected the brother and the sister so 
 differently, that it seemed as if Harriet would 
 never cease to laugh, and as if Allan would 
 never laugh again. 
 
 The evening of the exhibition was the last of 
 the Stanleys' visit. No pains had been spared 
 to render the performers perfect in their parts. 
 Old records and old prints had been brought 
 from town every day, in order that the Roman 
 dresses might be made exactly to the pattern 
 of the times. To Mary's charge this impor- 
 tant duty was committed, as well as that of 
 hearing the speeches repeated, until every 
 word could be pronounced without hesitation. 
 It was her duty also to encourage the speakers, 
 which she did with all her eloquence and 
 
THE IRON RULE. 155 
 
 kindness, but with little effect ; for tlie lurk- 
 ing smiles of Miss Stanley and her sister 
 betrayed but too plainly how fully they could 
 appreciate the absurdity of the scene. 
 
 At last the hated moment drew near, and 
 Allan, agitated equally with terror and dis- 
 gust, hurried along the passage leading into 
 the presence, and appeared in his Roman cos- 
 tume upon the temporary stage, infinitely 
 more like a school-boy repeating his task in 
 his nightgown, than a senator of the ancient 
 city arguing upon public measures that were 
 to influence half the world ; while Harriet 
 looked a few degrees more ridiculous than her 
 brother, because of her smaller size, her insig- 
 nificant face, and the irresistible propensity 
 to giggle, constantly interrupting her perfor- 
 mance. It was soon, however, too evident that 
 her laughter was hysterical ; and just as she 
 lifted up her little hand, and exclaimed with 
 her loudest emphasis, " Romans and citizens !" 
 her disorder having reached its crisis, took a 
 
156 HOME, OR 
 
 lachrymose turn, and sobs, loud and convulsive 
 as ever issued from a nursery, burst from her 
 lips, and put a stop to the expression of her 
 patriotic enthusiasm. It was high time for 
 the scene to close. Mary, without waiting for 
 a signal from her father, led the weeping 
 senator off the stage, and Allan followed in 
 their steps, too well pleased with his escape to 
 feel much compassion for his sister's tears. 
 
 Stephen Grey looked rather blank at this 
 melancholy conclusion of the device he had 
 invented solely for the purpose of giving 
 pleasure ; but never having seen the interior 
 of a theatre, he was not so well aware as some 
 others, of the deficiency in his children's per- 
 formance, or in the exhibition altogether. 
 Turning to his guests, he observed, " I now 
 wonder more than ever. Miss Stanley, that 
 not only the common people, but men of busi- 
 ness and respectability, can waste so much of 
 their lives in resorting to entertainments of 
 this kind." 
 
THE IRON RULE. 157 
 
 The ladies exchanged glances with each 
 other, but made no remark. They were not 
 surprised that Mr. Grey should underrate the 
 entertainment afforded by theatrical exhibi- 
 tions, if this was the only specimen he had 
 ever witnessed. Indeed, they did not wonder 
 at any absurdity committed by a family so 
 ignorant of the world as this ; and glad at heart 
 were they — as glad even as their hospitable 
 friends — when the next morning restored them 
 to their parents, to that dear world from 
 which they hoped never to be separated again, 
 and to the unspeakable privilege of comment- 
 ing upon the stupidity of the Greys without 
 being overheard. 
 
158 HOME, OR 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 It was not possible that Stephen Grey should 
 continue to govern his children, as they ad- 
 vanced in years, by the same rules which had 
 regulated their childhood. Authority on one 
 side, without a wish to please on the other, 
 does very little towards establishing the inter- 
 nal structure of a well-conducted family, and 
 still less towards promoting the individual 
 comfort of its members. As the impulses of 
 childhood strengthened into the more power- 
 ful inclinations and deeper passions of youth — 
 as imagination began to unfold itself, and indi- 
 vidual character became marked by peculiar 
 preferences and antipathies, the disposition to 
 
THE IRON RULE. 159 
 
 rebel against, rather than elude restraint, na- 
 turally gained ground; and this disposition, 
 increasingly evident in his children, rendered 
 Stephen Grey not only harsh, but irritable, 
 in proportion as he felt his own inability to 
 enforce entire submission ; while the constant 
 strife, the heartburnings, the bitterness, the 
 reproaches which ensued, rendered Welbourne 
 House a scene of much discomfort and dissa- 
 tisfaction to its inmates. Not that any thing so 
 flagrant as open defiance was even apprehended, 
 but the once passive and obedient boys and 
 girls would grow up to men and women, and, 
 as such, they longed more and more for the 
 power of acting independently, and thinking 
 for themselves. 
 
 The impatience of the oldest son to enter 
 upon some employment more congenial to his 
 taste, more manly, or, perhaps, more gentle- 
 manly, than that of teaching his brothers and 
 sisters at home, being at last satisfied by al- 
 lowing him to choose his profession, he de- 
 
160 HOME, OR 
 
 cided upon devoting his talents to the bar ; and 
 after the most studious and careful preparation, 
 and a solemn exordium upon the fate of George 
 Barnwell, followed by many serious warnings, 
 he was sent to learn the mysteries of his future 
 calling with an eminent solicitor in London. 
 
 The head being now removed, it was neces- 
 sary to care for the other members ; and here 
 again Stephen Grey believed, for some time, 
 that nothing was necessary but authority, pru- 
 dently and strictly exercised, to make the mem- 
 bers care for themselves. He commanded them 
 to study during the hours of his absence each 
 day, with the same punctuality as if James had 
 been present. He set before them the advan- 
 tages of a good education, and the privileges 
 they enjoyed in having books and leisure for 
 the improvement of their minds ; and then, 
 leaving them to profit by his exhortations, the 
 consequence was as might have been expected — 
 he was deceived : for, first, having agreed to 
 study alone, they betook themselves to their 
 
THE IRON RULE. 161 
 
 separate amusements, not forgetting to be 
 within call, with a book in their hands, when 
 their father should return from town. 
 
 Mary alone employed herself as duty dic- 
 tated, in teaching her sister Ellen ; while, upon 
 her serious mind rested all the anxiety of see- 
 ing the rest of the family spend their days in 
 idleness, and the additional perplexity of not 
 knowing how to remedy the evil. At length 
 she summoned all her courage ; and one even- 
 ing, when her father and she were alone, 
 ventured to lay before him the advantages of 
 sending her brothers and sister Harriet to 
 school. 
 
 " Schools are very expensive," observed Ste- 
 phen Grey ; " I am afraid they are idle at 
 home, or why should you have thought of 
 school. Are they idle, Mary?" 
 
 " They are much like other young people," 
 replied Mary ; " I do not think they study so 
 as to improve themselves much." 
 
 " Eh ? what ?" exclaimed her father ; " don't 
 they keep regular hours? — don^t they learn 
 
162 HOME, OR 
 
 set tasks? Tell me the truth, or it may be 
 worse for you all." 
 
 " I am afraid they do not," replied Mary ; 
 " but" — and she would have added all that 
 could be said in extenuation of their fault, had 
 not her father risen from his chair, and, after 
 ringing the bell violently, ordered George, 
 Allan, and Harriet to appear before him. 
 
 As soon as they had obeyed the unwelcome 
 summons, Stephen Grey began his lecture 
 by telling them he understood they were not 
 attentive to their studies — he understood they 
 were idle, kept no regular hours, and many 
 other particulars of their delinquency, which, 
 added together, fixed the stigma of a tell-tale 
 upon their sister Mary ; and as she sat, si- 
 lently suffering under this suspicion, she saw 
 that reproachful glances were cast towards 
 her by George and Harriet, though not by 
 Allan, for he would sooner have believed that 
 he himself had acted meanly, than have sus- 
 pected such a thing of Mary. 
 
 This long and angry lecture having con- 
 
THE IRON RULE. 163 
 
 eluded as usual with repeated charges, and 
 repeated threats, all which passed off like 
 empty air, to be disregarded as soon as 
 opportunity afforded the means of trans- 
 gressing again, it was not difficult for Mary 
 to clear herself from the odium of having 
 told the truth for the purpose of making 
 mischief, for no one dared to doubt her 
 word, and there was always a predisposition 
 to believe her guiltless of ill-nature. 
 
 Still her mind was far from being at ease on 
 the important point she had touched upon with 
 so little success ; and her father happening to 
 return one day when none of the three cul- 
 prits were to be found, she took the opportu- 
 nity to press again the subject of their being 
 sent to school. Once more her father threat- 
 ened, and this time he actually stormed ; but 
 on trying them again by returning home 
 earlier than usual, the case was just the 
 same. What was to be done ? He was vir- 
 tually sacrificing his dignity by suffering 
 
164 HOME, OR 
 
 such a state of misrule to exist. And as 
 there was no law by which his children could 
 be fastened down to their seats, and com- 
 pelled, under pain of bodily suffering, to 
 repeat a certain number of Greek or Latin 
 verses each day, he resolved at last to adopt 
 Mary's plan, but to do it in such a manner 
 as should make it appear a punishment rather 
 than an expedient. 
 
 The glad tidings of their father's decision 
 were, however, received as the very reverse 
 of a punishment by the young people, who 
 were but too well pleased with the chance of 
 escaping from a home associated in their 
 minds with little else than terror and gloom ; 
 and when they departed for the first time 
 from their father's house, to try their un- 
 known fate amongst strangers, it was to 
 Mary alone that they felt any pain at bidding 
 adieu. 
 
 George being considerably too old, though 
 by no means too highly accomplished, to be 
 
THE IRON RULE. 165 
 
 sent to a common seminary, he had been al- 
 lowed to make his choice of a business, not a 
 profession ; and the life of a farmer being, in 
 his sapient mind, connected with the advan- 
 tages of unbounded freedom and good fare, 
 he was dispatched to the residence of a neigh- 
 bouring grazier, a few days after Allan and 
 Harriet had departed on their different desti- 
 nations. 
 
 " These schools are very expensive," said 
 Stephen Grey to his daughter, one day when 
 they were seated alone. " I have been think- 
 ing, since we are so small a family, that I 
 might let this house for a year or so. It 
 stands, as people say, pleasantly, in a fine, 
 well cultivated district ; and then you and 
 little Ellen might go to my cousin Lee. 
 There is less danger to be apprehended in 
 her family, now that the rude boy, Elliott, 
 is away." 
 
 " And you, father," said Mary, touched 
 with the lonely situation in which her parent 
 
166 HOME, OR 
 
 would be left, and half inclined to forego the 
 long anticipated pleasure of visiting her 
 friend, for the sake of comforting her father. 
 
 " I shall take lodgings near my office," 
 replied Stephen Grey. " It will afford me an 
 opportunity of putting away my horse for a 
 few months ; and now that we talk the plan 
 over, it pleases me well, and I would have 
 you be ready as soon as you can, for I shall 
 write to cousin Lee by the next post." 
 
 It is not to be supposed that all this time 
 had passed without the inmates of the Abbey 
 being more frequently thought of, than they 
 have been mentioned here ; or that, consider- 
 ing they were separated from Welbourne 
 House only by a few fields, there should not 
 have been plausible excuses found for both 
 parties overstepping the prescribed limits ; 
 though the cominunication carried on between 
 them was much more secret, and less frequent 
 than before. Terence had been the first to 
 transgress, Allan the next ; and on the eve of 
 
THE IRON RULE. 167 
 
 his departure from home, the two friends 
 were alone together for more than an hour, 
 within sight of a signal by which Mary had 
 promised to give them notice if Allan should 
 be called for. 
 
 The time being now come for Mary to 
 gather together the remnant of her own and 
 Ellen's frugal wardrobe, she could not help 
 wondering whether Terence would take any 
 pains to see her too, before she went. A 
 gentle tap at the window, such as none but a 
 listening ear could have detected, convinced 
 her that she was not forgotten ; and commit- 
 ting the rest of the packing to Ellen's charge, 
 she hastened to the garden, just to bid him 
 good bye as she stood upon the steps. 
 
 " Will you not come down to me, Mary?" 
 said Terence, in a voice so low and sorrowful, 
 that it scarcely sounded like his own. " Will 
 you not come down and walk once round the 
 garden with me? Perhaps we shall never 
 meet again." 
 
 Mary, who had not been prepared for 
 
168 HOME, OR 
 
 any thing different from his wonted cheerful 
 manner, found herself in a few moments 
 walking by his side, quite unconscious of the 
 impulse which had brought her there ; and 
 when they stood together by the old garden 
 seat under the yew tree, and Terence drew his 
 arm around her waist, and, leaning his head 
 upon her shoulder, almost sobbed aloud, Mary 
 for the first time in her life forgot her duties 
 in a kind of delirium she was wholly at a loss 
 to understand. 
 
 " You are all going to leave us," said the 
 forlorn and miserable boy, as soon as he 
 regained the power of utterance. "Whether it 
 is because you are going the last, I know not, 
 but I feel as if I could not— would not part 
 with you. Ah, Mary, we never know how 
 well we love our friends till we are about to 
 be separated for ever!" 
 
 " Terence," said Mary, " you have a kind 
 father, a happy home, and your excellent 
 spirits will soon return." 
 
 ** My father is not what he was, Mary, 
 
THE IRON RULE. 169 
 
 though always kind. I think he has troubles 
 which he does not tell ; and his healtli, too, 
 seems to me as if it failed him. If I should 
 lose my father, I should be desolate indeed." 
 
 "We shall soon come back to you, Te- 
 rence.'' 
 
 "How soon?" 
 
 *' In a year." 
 
 " A year ! And can you call that soon ! A 
 year of pleasure is so much that it suffices for 
 one man's life ; but when you talk of a year 
 of misery, it swells into ages ! I care for no 
 good that is promised me, if a whole year 
 must come between it and me." 
 
 " How ungrateful you are, Terence, for the 
 blessings of hope." 
 
 " Oh, Mary, I like possession so much 
 better than hope, that while I hold you here 
 I am satisfied." 
 
 " Your satisfaction must soon be over, then, 
 for it is time we should say farewell. You 
 will think of me sometimes, I am sure, 
 
 VOL. I. I 
 
170 HOME, OR 
 
 Terence, but there is one thing besides I wish 
 you would think of for my sake." 
 
 "What is that, Mary? I can never forget, 
 if you make it your parting charge." 
 
 "It is that you will curb your wild spirit, and 
 remember what is due to others, even when 
 they are not the persons you most admire." 
 
 " Well, I will do my best, if you will love 
 me better for it." 
 
 " I do not say that ; but I am sure I shall 
 be less unhappy — less anxious about you than 
 I am." 
 
 "And in return you will promise me one 
 thing, Mary ; " and Terence hung down his 
 head, for he was not quite sure his request was 
 reasonable, or that it would be well received. 
 
 " Speak freely," said Mary, " we have no 
 time to lose." 
 
 " Then look another way," said Terence; " I 
 cannot speak out while your eyes are upon J 
 me. 
 
 " Go on," said Mary, with her face averted. I 
 
THE IRON RULE. 171 
 
 *' Well, then, it is, that when that fine 
 handsome fellow, Elliott Lee, comes home" — 
 
 ** What then?" 
 
 " That you will not love him better than 
 you love me." 
 
 " I shall not see Elliott, I believe." 
 
 " That is nothing to my purpose. I say if 
 you do see him, you must not love him better 
 than you love me." 
 
 " I do not think I shall." 
 
 '* Do not think, Mary ! You must promise 
 me this. You must make a solemn vow 
 beneath the stars this night ;" — and the enthu- 
 siast ran on with all the volubility of a true 
 son of green Erin, until Mary, half frightened 
 and half ashamed, tore herself from his em- 
 braces, and hastening to the door, only stayed 
 her steps for one moment to bid him an 
 affectionate and sorrowful farewell, which had 
 more deep and genuine feeling in it, than all 
 his rapturous expressions, sincere as they were 
 for the time. 
 
 I 2 
 
172 HOME, OR 
 
 The following morning Mary and her sister 
 Ellen bade adieu to their paternal home, and, 
 under the protection of an old domestic, pur- 
 sued their first journey in perfect safety. 
 
 Mrs. Lee had been much gratified, and not 
 a little amused with the idea of her stern 
 relative committing the charge of his two 
 daughters to one whose principle of moral 
 education he had so often and so severely 
 condemned; but whatever might have been 
 his motive in doing this, she was too well 
 pleased with the measure so unexpectedly 
 adopted, to remind him, even in the way of 
 good-humoured raillery, of the contempt he 
 had been wont to express for her system of 
 dangerous and culpable indulgence. 
 
 Since the period of Elliott's being placecj^ 
 in one of those classical establishments where 
 young gentlemen, even of mature years, fre- 
 quently go to pursue their studies previous to 
 entering upon a college life, the mother and 
 her two remaining children tiad lived in a much 
 
THE IRON RULE. 173 
 
 more regular and quiet manner ; for to say the 
 truth of Elliott, there was a restlessness in his 
 nature — a querulous dissatisfaction with every 
 thing that fell short of his ideas of perfection, 
 which, combined with a too evideiit sense of 
 superiority, derived in part from the circum- 
 stance of his being sole heir to his grandfather's 
 property, rendered him by no means the most 
 satisfactory inmate of a small domestic family. 
 Still he was kind-hearted, generous, and some- 
 times a most interesting companion ; and if 
 filial affection had needed nothing more than 
 sudden ebullitions of tenderness to prove its 
 value, Elliott Lee would have been one of the 
 best of sons. It was his extreme fastidiousness 
 in all the common concerns of life, connected 
 wwith a haughty temper, that spurned at femi- 
 nine control, which had induced Mrs. Lee to 
 remove him to a situation where he might, 
 by association with the world in miniature, 
 learn the real value of his home comforts, as 
 well as that grand lesson, of such importance 
 
174 HOME, OR 
 
 in the voyage of life, that without it we are 
 sure to make shipwreck of our own and others' 
 peace — the necessity of bearing and forbearing. 
 
 The genuine pleasure with which Mrs. Lee 
 received the travellers after their long day's 
 journey, was somewhat damped by the arrival 
 of a letter on the same day from the superin- 
 tendent of the establishment where Elliott 
 was placed, alluding to an act of rebellion of 
 which her son had been guilty, and hinting at 
 the necessity of expulsion, if his present con- 
 tumacious spirit were not subdued ; but leav- 
 ing the particulars of the story for painful 
 conjecture, and the distressing exaggeration 
 of anxious and indefinite thoughts. 
 
 It was not customary with this excellent 
 woman to suffer her own peculiar trials and 
 perplexities to break in upon the enjoyment 
 of others, still less to trouble young minds 
 with burdens beyond their power to lighten ; 
 she therefore kept the contents of this letter 
 for her own private meditation, secure that 
 
THE IRON RULE. 175 
 
 time would develope its mystery, and almost 
 equally confident that Elliott would not be 
 backward to tell his own unvarnished tale. 
 
 In the mean time Mary Grey was entering 
 upon a new life, with sensations resembling 
 thoze we might suppose a freshly created 
 spirit to feel, on first walking the fields of 
 Paradise. Here was no fear, and that ex- 
 emption from a customary evil was of itself 
 sufficient for a time to satisfy an unambitious 
 soul like hers. In the next place, she had the 
 constant companionship of those she loved, and 
 to whom she dared communicate her thoughts ; 
 above all, of a friend whose mind, in many 
 respects resembling her own, was enlightened 
 with higher attainments, and having been che- 
 rished in a more genial atmosphere, was conse- 
 quently more buoyant and more enterprising. 
 
 Catherine Lee was a fine, dignified, hand- 
 some girl, about the age of Mary, with the 
 same warm affections, and the same refine- 
 ment of feeling ; but wholly free, both from 
 
176 HOME, OR 
 
 suffering and anticipating the blight which 
 such affections, under Mary's circumstances, 
 seem to bring upon themselves, as well as 
 from the morbid sensitiveness almost inva- 
 riably accompanying extreme refinement, 
 when slighted or abused. Mary, however, 
 was far from being morbid, though subject to 
 incalculable suffering from all the incidents 
 of life, arising out of the unkindness or 
 culpability of others. But with her exquisite 
 sensibility, nature had combined an equani- 
 mity of temper, that, while it enabled her to 
 maintain a singular degree of composure 
 under the most trying circumstances, at the 
 same time shielded her from many attacks 
 which might otherwise have been destructive 
 of her internal peace. Catherine, unlike her 
 friend in this respect, while she possessed 
 what is called an excellent temper, was more 
 impetuous, and more enthusiastic, from never 
 having known in infancy the sad conse- 
 quences of unnatural fear. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 177 
 
 Herbert Lee was a youth of fine talents, 
 and, if possible, more amiable than his sister ; 
 but a delicate constitution, and a partiality 
 almost amounting to a passion for study, pre- 
 vented his taking: much interest in the ordi- 
 nary events of life. Elliott, who almost doted 
 on his sister, had no great reverence for the 
 quiet virtues of his brother ; and one reason 
 for his being sent from home, was a practice 
 he addicted himself to, of making the slender 
 frame and studious habits of Herbert, the 
 constant theme of his ridicule and satire. 
 
 With the beauty of Ellen Grey, Mrs. Lee 
 and her daughter were no less delighted than 
 astonished. From the circumstance of her 
 being the youngest in the family, they had 
 not been accustomed to regard her as so old 
 as she really was ; but her personal charms 
 rapidly advancing to maturity, began already 
 to blend something of the gentleness of a 
 woman with the playfulness of a child. It 
 soon became an object of solicitude with her 
 
 i3 
 
178 HOME, OR 
 
 kind relatives to promote the simultaneous 
 advancement of her mind, and Mary, who 
 deeply felt her own deficiency in the usual 
 acquirements of her sex, took advantage of 
 all the privileges of her present situation, for 
 supplying, as far as she could, the vrant of 
 more method and regularity in her previous 
 education. 
 
 The pleasure of reading aloud with a family 
 who could all enjoy the same book, was one 
 entirely new to Mary ; and when she found 
 that Mrs. Lee, by allowing a judicious selec- 
 tion of works of fiction to appear in her 
 common library, and by herself proposing 
 amusements to her children, and sharing in 
 them, prevented the dangerous inclination to 
 secrete improper books, or to secure forbidden 
 pleasures by unlawful means, she was almost 
 tempted to envy those whose privilege it was 
 to breathe in an atmosphere of freedom, and 
 to be at once rational and happy. 
 
 " We have never been accustomed to hide 
 
THE IRON RULE. 179 
 
 any thing from my mother," said Catherine. 
 *•' She reads the same books that we do, and 
 as she knows so much more of the world, and 
 of literature in general, if she tells us that 
 any book is not worthy, or not fit to be read, 
 we are quite satisfied, and think no more 
 about it." 
 
 " You are very good," observed Mary, with 
 perfect simplicity. 
 
 " No, you mistake me," replied Catherine, 
 smiling; "we are not so good as you sup- 
 pose. If we had no other agreeable books, 
 I dare say we should continue to wish for 
 those that are forbidden ; but it has always 
 been my mother's practice, when she denied 
 us one pleasure, to point out a substitute ; so 
 that instead of repining for what we ought 
 not to have, we passed on to something else, 
 and forgot it." 
 
 " Mrs. Lee must have had a great many 
 nice things at her disposal," exclaimed Ellen, 
 rather puzzled to imagine where all these 
 pleasures came from. 
 
180 HOME, OR 
 
 " You mistake me aofain," said Catherine. 
 " Very little money has ever been spent upon 
 our enjoyments. The principle upon which my 
 mother acted, was to teach us to find pleasure 
 in the simplest things, and to enjoy freely 
 and innocently, but I might almost say, 
 intensely, the blessings constantly around 
 us." 
 
 " And how did she do this ?" inquired Mary, 
 struck with a totally new idea. 
 
 " Chiefly, I think, by entering into them 
 with cheerfulness herself; but beyond this, 
 by pointing out what we should never have 
 thought of, — their real nature, — their ten- 
 dency, — their association with other things, — 
 and above all, as far as she could discover it, 
 their agency in the great scheme of wisdom 
 and mercy by which the world is governed." 
 
 It was indeed by such means, that Mrs. 
 Lee maintained almost unbounded influence 
 over her children's habits, as well as their 
 affections ; and so completely were their 
 ideas of their mother's happiness, as well as 
 
THE IRON RULE. 181 
 
 their own, and that of mankind in general, 
 identified with the practice of every virtue, 
 that the misery of having acted contrary to 
 the dictates of conscience, and, consequently, 
 to their mother's wishes, proved, on most oc- 
 casions, of sufficient force to bring them back 
 to the path of duty. 
 
 With her oldest son, it is true, this motive 
 was not always sufficient ; for while he felt 
 the misery with no less intensity than the 
 others, he had a stronger will, and more 
 violent passions to contend with. The anxiety 
 his mother now experienced, and to which 
 she sometimes yielded in her solitary hours, 
 was not altogether grounded upon the myste- 
 rious letter already alluded to ; nor was the 
 present the only trial which had been made 
 of Elliott's submission to the rules of a public 
 school. It was now some years since the 
 first unsuccessful experiment had been made ; 
 and though the boy was not literally expelled, 
 he brought home with him a gentle insinua- 
 tion from his masters that his mother would do 
 
182 HOME, OR 
 
 well to change the scene of his scholastic stu- 
 dies ; and in his own heart, so unconquerable 
 a disgust for the school, that Mrs. Lee deemed 
 it scarcely prudent to send him to the same 
 again. 
 
 The origin of this disgust, Elliott frankly 
 and candidly explained to his mother ; and 
 although she reasoned with him coolly and 
 impartially upon the part he had acted in the 
 affair, he never could be brought to think 
 himself so culpable as he really was, or to 
 speak on the subject without declaring, that 
 under similar provocation, he would do the 
 same again. 
 
 This momentous event, which raised the boy 
 in his own estimation, as much as it lowered 
 him in that of his superiors, occurred a few 
 weeks after his entering the school. Like a 
 dutiful son, he had, previously to that time, 
 adhered faithfully to his mother's advice, that 
 he should read, privately, a chapter in the 
 bible every morning before he mixed with his 
 companions, or entered upon the duties of 
 
THE IRON RULE. 183 
 
 the day. Having unfortunately over-slept 
 himself one mornmg, he stole into the garden, 
 determined to risk the loss of his breakfast, 
 and the anger of his master, rather than break 
 through a rule which his mother had assured 
 him, if once infringed upon, might lead to 
 other encroachments upon duty. On making 
 his appearance amongst the boys, Elliott was 
 asked in an authoritative tone, why he had 
 not been ready to join them at the breakfast 
 table. 
 
 For some time he hesitated, knowing that 
 by attempting to justify himself by telling the 
 whole truth, he should infallibly incur the 
 ridicule of his companions ; while his master, 
 mistaking his hesitation for a wish to conceal 
 some culpable transgression of the laws of the 
 school, loudly and imperatively demanded 
 where he had been. 
 
 " In the garden," replied Elliott. 
 
 " What were you doing there?" was the 
 question that immediately followed. 
 
184 HOME, OR 
 
 Elliott was silent. 
 
 The question was repeated, louder and loud- 
 er each time, until at last the master, irritated 
 beyond his patience, seized the rebel by the 
 arm, and shouted in his ear, " What were you 
 doing in the garden ?" 
 
 Elliott, with a face all over crimson, replied 
 in a voice almost as loud, " Since you must 
 know, I was reading my bible." 
 
 "Hypocrite!" exclaimed the master, and 
 thrust him away with a look of ineffable 
 contempt . 
 
 Elliott looked him steadily in the face for 
 one moment ; " It is the first time," said he, 
 " that I have been called hypocrite, and by 
 you it shall be the last." 
 
 As he said this, he drew the bible from his 
 bosom, and, without a moment's hesitation, 
 hurled it at the master's head. 
 
 He was so near and so determined, that he 
 could not well have missed his aim ; and if 
 the bursting of the goodly binding, and the 
 
THE IRON RULE. 185 
 
 scattering of the gilded leaves, were any proof 
 of the density of the material with which they 
 came in contact, there is some reason to sus- 
 pect that the master of that seminary was not 
 exactly qualified for his important office. 
 
 This circumstance, of which Elliott was 
 much too fond of boasting, and which, when 
 Catherine first heard of it, inspired her with 
 an irresistible propensity to laugh, occasioned 
 their mother many sad and serious thoughts ; 
 and now, as she pondered on the past and the 
 present, it was with a strict examination of 
 her own motives, and with repeated endea- 
 vours to find out whether she had acted wisely 
 in sending her son away from the compara- 
 tively safe shelter of her own roof, and com- 
 mitting him to the dubious companionship of 
 the various characters usually met with in a 
 public school. Her sorrowful reflection, on 
 retiring to rest was, that we are creatures of 
 such limited perceptions, we know not what 
 we do, and sometimes when we would guide 
 
186 HOME, OR 
 
 the wandering, we only lead them into a more 
 dangerous way. But even these reflections 
 were not able to weigh down a mind like 
 hers, supported as it was by the firm belief, 
 that man is only required to act upon his own 
 convictions of right and wrong ; and that, if 
 beyond the sphere of his limited vision, there 
 are snares and pitfalls spread for the feet of 
 the unwary, the issue, both to him and them, 
 is in the hands of one who " willeth not the 
 death of the sinner," and who, if it were con- 
 sistent with his own wise and merciful designs, 
 could remove every temptation from the pil- 
 grim's path. 
 
 In vain did the anxious mother now look for 
 the expected tidings. They came not, and the 
 time of her son's anticipated return drew near. 
 
 At last a letter arrived with Elliott's seal, 
 and quickly did she recognise the well-known 
 hand ; but while her heart beat violently, her 
 cheek grew pale as she read. 
 
 " What is the matter?" exclaimed Catherine. 
 
THE IKON RULE. 187 
 
 " Nothing," replied her mother, calmly, 
 *' only Elliott is not coming home ; he is going 
 with a son of Lord Dacre's to his father's seat, 
 in Bedfordshire ; but you may read the letter, 
 it will not take you long." 
 
 Catherine with difficulty yielded to the evi- 
 dence of her own senses : for though the letter 
 was written by her brother, it barely extended 
 through the first page, and scarcely contained 
 one word of genuine kindness. Unable to 
 believe that this was all, she turned over the 
 leaf. There were a few words on the oppo- 
 site side, as if an after- thought had struck the 
 writer, but they were scored through ; while 
 all the satisfaction they afforded was to see 
 that the expression " dear mother" was amongst 
 them. 
 
 And those who know what it is to love in- 
 tensely, will believe that there was satisfaction 
 even in this : for out of what materials may not 
 a woman's love, and especially that of a mother, 
 find sustenance ? Other loves iliay pine away 
 
188 HOME, OR 
 
 upon the sterile wilderness of life, where there 
 are no flowers to cull, no fruit to gather, and 
 no harvest to be reaped ; but the love of a 
 mother can subsist upon the bitter roots of 
 unkindness and neglect, and maintain its fresh- 
 ness and its vigour by drinking of the waters 
 of affliction. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 189 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Whilst Mary Grey remained beneath the 
 roof of her hospitable friend, time flew on 
 with rapid wing, not laden as it had hitherto 
 been with cares and trials, but bringing 
 along with each day a renewal of heartfelt 
 enjoyment. Nor was his speedier flight 
 unmarked by those deep impressions arising 
 out of a serious examination of the purest 
 sentiments, united with the faithful and unre- 
 mitting performance of moral and religious 
 duty. 
 
 The Greys had been accustomed to consider 
 religion as a high and holy shrine only to be 
 approached occasionally, and for the purpose 
 
190 HOME, OR 
 
 of offering up all their natural enjoyments ; 
 rather than as a household deity, whose pre- 
 sence was to sanctify their social meetings, to 
 soothe their solitude, and support them under 
 the burden of affliction — to bless their going 
 forth, and to hallow their return — to stamp 
 the character of truth upon their worldly 
 transactions, and to infuse into their private 
 feelings the sanctity of peace and love. 
 
 Such were the views of Mrs. Lee on this 
 important subject, that the religious discipline 
 of her household was rather felt than seen. 
 Her religious duties were not such as consti- 
 tuted a distinct and separate part of her exis- 
 tence ; but so blended with the familiar 
 avocations of each day, as scarcely to be held 
 more sacred, to be more zealously perform- 
 ed, or more scrupulously watched over, than 
 the choice of her friends, the regulation of 
 her habits, or the conversation of her social 
 hours. Thus, while she permitted none of the 
 more conspicuous offices of piety to be ne-^ 
 
THE IRON RULE. 191 
 
 glected, she rendered her own society both 
 interesting and highly improving, by the 
 constant reference of her thoughts, even on 
 ordinary occasions, to the two distinct prin- 
 ciples of good and evil ; to the merciful 
 Providence by which our lives are governed ; 
 and to the wisdom, the power, and the glory 
 of an almighty Father, and founder of the 
 universe. 
 
 And Mary listened to her words, and 
 marked her conduct with the deep interest of 
 one who studies for the first time the holy 
 truths imprinted in the book of life, little 
 dreaming that the time would come, when the 
 barren wastes before her, the thorns upon her 
 path, and the storms to be encountered on her 
 way, would make her look back with grati- 
 tude, and bless the solemn lessons she was 
 now learning, unconscious of their after utility, 
 or their intrinsic worth. 
 
 We have sufficient evidence that even those 
 who are most solicitous to maintain an upright 
 
192 HOME, OR 
 
 walk in the path of duty, are not permitted to 
 pursue their earthly course in uninterrupted 
 joy. The uniform comfort of his mother's 
 fireside was robbed of its felicity, by the 
 unnatural and still mysterious conduct of 
 Elliott Lee, who came not at the earnest 
 solicitations of his family, nor wrote more 
 kindly to them, or with more openness of 
 himself, though he knew that the happiness 
 of a parent must be sacrificed by his unwonted 
 reserve. One letter alone, evidently written 
 under a degree of mental depression, wore 
 something of the character of his former self. 
 In this he entreated his mother never again 
 to press the subject of his return home. " I 
 distress you by my absence," said he, " but I 
 should distress you still more were I to come 
 back to the home I am no longer capable of 
 enjoying. The habits of openness and can- 
 dour in which we were educated, can only give 
 pleasure where there are none but venial 
 errors to expose. When the heart is changed, 
 
THE IRON RULE. 193 
 
 there can be little benefit in describing how that 
 change has been effected. Suffice it, then, for 
 you my mother — for Catherine, and Herbert, 
 to know, that I am not what I was. I have 
 other objects in pursuit, and different pleasures 
 from those which fill your happy thoughts. 
 In another month I go to college. In another 
 year I shall be of age. It will then be in my 
 power to assist you in any pecuniary way, and 
 would to Heaven that, by scattering gold 
 beneath your feet, I could heal the wounds I 
 have inflicted on your peace." 
 
 Mrs. Lee felt, on reading this letter, that 
 all hope was indeed over for the present, that 
 she had lost her influence over her son, and 
 that his prolonged absence would effectually 
 loosen the ties of natural affection which she 
 still believed he had not entirely shaken off. 
 The feminine impulse to seek him, wherever 
 he might be, and ascertain what would be 
 the effect of a personal interview, often agi- 
 tated her mind ; but she was held back by 
 
 VOL. I. K 
 
194 HOME, OR 
 
 the recollection of his pride, his peculiar 
 temper, and the indignant spirit with which 
 he had ever been accustomed to repel what 
 he considered as unwarrantable interference ; 
 and when she replied to his letter, it was with 
 her wonted expressions of interest and affec- 
 tion, accompanied by that half-suppressed an- 
 guish, which goes farther than the bitterest 
 reproaches towards touching the mind where 
 every noble and generous feeling is not 
 effaced. 
 
 Mary Grey entered deeply and feelingly 
 into the anxieties of the family with whom 
 she was so intimately associated ; but much 
 as she desired to make what return she could 
 for their unremitting kindness to herself and 
 Ellen, by devoting to their hour of need all 
 the support and consolation it was in her 
 power to offer, there were lingering thoughts 
 of home that hung about her heart, and made 
 her welcome her father's letters with a more 
 lively interest than such dry and business-like 
 
THE IRON RULE. 195 
 
 compositions as StejDlien Grey's are wont to 
 produce. 
 
 It was a short time before the stipulated 
 twelve months of absence had expired, that 
 Mary received from her father a melancholy 
 account of the failing health of their neigh- 
 bour at the Abbey ; towards whom, now that 
 the dangerous intercourse between the younger 
 branches of the two families was cut off, 
 Stephen Grey seemed to entertain more pla~ 
 cable and kindly feelings. 
 
 His next letter astonished Mary by inform- 
 ing her, that Mr. Malone had consulted him 
 on the subject of becoming his executor. 
 
 " At the request of this individual," said he, 
 " I waited upon him at his own house, and a 
 miserable Babel it is. I found him much 
 altered, suffering rather sharply, and as ap- 
 peared during my stay, more patiently than 
 might have been expected from him. When 
 he entered into the state of his pecuniary 
 affairs, I was not surprised at the application 
 
 k2 
 
196 HOME, OR 
 
 it had been his purpose to make to me ; for 
 truly an experienced mind, a wise'head, and 
 sound judgment, will be needed to set all 
 right. You know that I never approved of 
 this person's domestic character ; but it can 
 injure no man to do a kind office for the dead, 
 and it is possible that my influence may be 
 very beneficial when extended to the young 
 people, who seem to have fallen into their 
 present state, more through over indulgence, 
 and the constant pursuit of pleasure instead of 
 business, than from naturally vicious disposi- 
 tions. Of course my remarks refer to the 
 boy. Of his sister I know nothing, but if 
 one may judge by the expense lavished upon 
 her education, I should suppose her to be 
 equally worthless with him. 
 
 '* With respect to my own affairs, you are 
 aware that I still occupy my house in the 
 country, in consequence of not being able 
 to meet with a tenant, whose views as to rent, 
 and terms of occupation, were at all reason- 
 
THE IRON RULE. 197 
 
 aHe ; but by dismissing two of my servants, 
 and adopting a stricter mode of economy in 
 my way of living, I may hope to meet the 
 great expenses of the present year ; notwith- 
 standing some deficiency in my accounts at 
 the office, which have given occasion for very 
 unpleasant suspicions to be laid at the door of 
 my youngest clerk. Indeed, so strong was the 
 presumptive evidence against him, that he 
 has been dismissed from his place, although 
 for the sake of his parents, the real cause is 
 not made public. In his stead I propose 
 taking my son Allan, who returns from school 
 on the fifteenth of this month. I have not 
 given him his choice, as I did my other sons, 
 for three weighty reasons — first, because I 
 wish him to feel that there is a marked diffe- 
 rence between his conduct and theirs (at least 
 that of his oldest brother) ; secondly, because 
 I do not consider him competent to judge for 
 himself in an affair of such moment ; and 
 thirdly, because there appears to be a per- 
 
198 HOME, OR 
 
 verseness in his nature, which I believe 
 nothing but my own personal authority can 
 subdue." 
 
 " Poor Allan," said Mary, as she folded up 
 the letter. " Never was a temper more docile, 
 a spirit more gentle, than yours, if you had 
 but been treated with kindness and discretion ; 
 and now he whose mind is peculiarly formed 
 for the higher and freer walks of intellect, 
 must be forced down by compulsion into a 
 situation he can neither enjoy nor do credit 
 to, if he would. Oh my father! if you did 
 but know the real character of those you have 
 to deal with, how much good instead of evil 
 you might do, and what a world of misery you 
 might spare them !" 
 
 The next letter Mary received, was from 
 this favourite brother. In six long pages, he 
 told her all her heart was thirsting to know ; 
 but it left a melancholy impression, that some 
 for whom she was deeply interested, were 
 neither so well, nor so happy, as she could 
 
THE IRON RULE. 199 
 
 have wished. The least satisfactory part of 
 the letter related to her brother George. In 
 Allan's description of his journey home, *'we 
 stopped half an hour," said he, " at the town 
 
 of , where a cattle fair was held that 
 
 day. With the other passengers I was dining 
 in a room, separated only by a narrow pas- 
 sage from one where a number of farmers 
 and cattle-dealers were regaling themselves 
 with pipes, and equally odoriferous potations. 
 Amongst their disputes, their oaths, and their 
 vociferous exclamations, I recognised the 
 voice of my brother George, and immediately 
 looking in at the open door, discovered 
 through the dense clouds of smoke, a stout, 
 bloated-looking young man, leaning his back 
 against the wall, and challenging one of the 
 company to fight. As he spoke in the broad 
 dialect of the country, and was dressed in the 
 short green riding coat by which swaggering 
 young fellows of this description are distin- 
 guished, I had some difficulty in persuading 
 
200 HOME, OR 
 
 myself that this was really my brother ; but 
 as soon as his eye met mine, I was convinced. 
 He did not know me at first, for his vision 
 was a little distorted, and when he did, his 
 recognition was attended with no signs of 
 pleasure. In short, after exchanging a few 
 words, he skulked away into the stable-yard, 
 to look after what he called his * nag.' 
 
 " This circumstance, I confess, cast a 
 gloom over my spirits for the rest of the 
 journey, which I was unable to throw off; for 
 you know, Mary, what belongs to the sort of 
 life my brother is leading, and that he has 
 little in his own nature, or in his own attain- 
 ments, to raise him above the society by which 
 he is now surrounded. , 
 
 " Throughout the remainder of the day, my 
 mind was so much occupied with these sad 
 thoughts, that I had not prepared myself for 
 finding Welbourne House exactly in its pre- 
 sent state. To you I need not describe the 
 melancholy of returning home without one 
 
THE IRON RULE. 201 
 
 kind look to welcome our approach, or one 
 fond heart to beat more cheerfully for our 
 presence. Yet let me not forget poor Terence. 
 He was overjoyed to meet me, and I, too, was 
 delighted to find that I might once more enter 
 the Abbey gates, without treading on forbidden 
 ground . My delight, however, was considerably 
 damped on finding our kind-hearted old friend 
 so much an invalid, and sujffering from a ma- 
 lady which he knows must bring him speedily 
 to the grave. That house too, Mary, with its 
 crumbling walls, and long passages, and va- 
 cant rooms, while it echoed with our laughter, 
 was a perfect paradise, but it is not the house 
 for sickness ; and with only Terence and his 
 father, the one in sorrow, the other in pain, 
 the gloom which surrounds them is almost 
 insupportable. Do not, however, suppose that 
 I seek their society the less for the melan- 
 choly feelings it calls forth. I think they are 
 both dearer to me now, than in their brightest, 
 happiest hours. Indeed, my friend never ap- 
 
 K 3 
 
202 HOME, OR 
 
 peared to such advantage, as since he has had 
 his father to support and cheer ; and the old 
 gentleman still shows his wonted consideration 
 for others, by suppressing every complaint, 
 and conversing cheerfully, even while evi- 
 dently suffering the severest pain. You will 
 judge of the extent to which this mistaken 
 consideration is carried, when I tell you that he 
 will not allow his daughter to be informed of 
 his real situation. ' Let her be happy while she 
 can,' is the reply he always makes, when 
 Terence entreats him to permit her to be sent 
 for, and represents the need he has of a kinder 
 and gentler nurse than himself. 
 
 " ' That can never be,' said he most feelingly, 
 the last time the subject was pressed upon 
 him. ' Wait but one week longer, and then 
 perhaps I may feel differently. A week of 
 happiness is something in this world, Terence.' 
 
 *' I could not help regretting the mistaken 
 view the poor man was taking of happiness ; 
 and I asked him if he did not think a dutiful 
 
THE IRON RULE. 203 
 
 and affectionate daughter would be happier in 
 the sick chamber of her father, than she 
 could be in the midst of lighter pleasures, which 
 centred only in herself? 
 
 *' ' My young friend,' said he, smiling, 'you 
 are a poet, and this is all very fine for you to 
 write about ; but I have always thought that 
 we men make rather too large a demand upon 
 the virtues of the other sex, and I long since 
 determined that no woman should be rendered 
 more patient, more suffering, or more assidu- 
 ous in her kindness, from what I might require 
 of her.' 
 
 ** So you see, Mary, if all men were as^- 
 disinterested as our friend, you would want 
 exercise for half your virtues ; and since there 
 is no way for excellence to shine forth in its 
 genuine lustre without being put to the test, 
 you ought to thank us for the selfishness and 
 the caprices that make you what you are." 
 
 Allan's next letter to his sister referred 
 more to his own situation, the difficulties of 
 
204 HOME, OR 
 
 which he had not experienced in their full force 
 when he first wrote. He had now entered 
 upon the office assigned to him by the will of 
 his father, as entirely devoid of every quali- 
 fication for filling it successfully, as if he had 
 not possessed the rational faculties of a man ; 
 for of what value are any faculties, without 
 either the power or the inclination to use 
 them ? 
 
 " Mary," said he, in writing to his sister, 
 " I have taken my new station with the full 
 confidence that I shall not occupy it long, for 
 to me it is a living death. Yet here I see 
 other men grow fat and flourish, while they 
 inhale the smell of musty paper, as if it were 
 the scent of violets borne upon the fresh pure 
 gales of spring. I see them open the mighty 
 ledger as if they unfolded the sibylline leaves, 
 finding for every hour of their existence a new 
 and invigorating truth ; and grasp with eager- 
 ness the filthy gold for which they sacrifice 
 the freedom, and the highest attributes of 
 
THE IRON RULE. 205 
 
 intellectual being. The secret of human 
 happiness is to be in one's proper place, and 
 these men are in their's ; but where, my sister 
 — where under this blessed sun, would you 
 appoint me mine ? 
 
 " I will not be so blasphemous as to suppose 
 that an immortal being was ever subjected to 
 the ills of life, without a purpose in his exis- 
 tence ; but if such a defect in creation were 
 possible, I should say that I was the man. 
 My father is dissatisfied with me already. I 
 knew how it would be, and having never by 
 my best endeavours been fortunate enough to 
 please him, I fear I do not exhibit much 
 alacrity in complying with his wishes. Still 
 I do obey him, and if he would but give me 
 a kind word now and then — if he would but 
 give me credit for not being altogether a base 
 unprincipled wretch — in short, if he would 
 but understand me, I believe he might make 
 a man of me yet — whether he could ever make 
 me a wealthy man is very doubtful. 
 
206 HOME, OR 
 
 " Do you know, I believe my father actually 
 suspects my honesty. He gave me a sharp 
 scrutinizing look last night as he pressed me 
 with some pointed questions, the drift of 
 which I did not fully understand at the time ; 
 but his manner made it too evident to me upon 
 reflection, that he must have suspected me of 
 concealment and fraud. Well, I suppose I 
 must bear even this, for I feel that my lot in 
 life will be one of unmitigated bitterness ; but 
 if I were permitted to choose what to me 
 would be the greatest earthly blessing, it 
 would be to live with those who could under- 
 stand me." 
 
 The next letter from Allan was in the same 
 hopeless strain, accompanied with a still 
 deeper shade of melancholy ; but the last 
 detached sentence proved, that though the 
 energies of the writer might sometimes be 
 dormant, they were not yet extinguished, or 
 subdued. 
 
 " I am writing in my own chamber," said 
 
THE IRON RULE. 207 
 
 he, " and listening for the carriage that is to 
 bring Cathleen to her dying father. The 
 night is dark and cloudy, and when I look 
 out I see nothing but that one faint speck of 
 distant light which marks the sick man's 
 chamber. I moralize upon it, and think when 
 that light is extinguished, where will be — 
 I hear the carriage wheels — the Abbey gates 
 are closed — Cathleen has come ! " 
 
 " Foolish boy !" said Mary, as she read the 
 closing sentence, " what have you to do with 
 Cathleen ? Have you not sorrow and trouble 
 enough, without fancying you must love one 
 of that luckless family ? " 
 
 This letter was soon followed by another 
 from the same hand. It began abruptly — 
 " Mary, I have seen Cathleen, but how shall 
 I describe her? What pencil can convey a 
 just idea of a being too spiritual to be defined 
 by outline, too pure for colours to pourtray. 
 I have beheld her seated by her father's bed, 
 like Egeria by the couch of death. She has 
 
208 HOME, OR 
 
 the azure eyes and ruby lips so peculiar to her 
 country; and while I gaze upon her, I am 
 struck with the recollection of a picture I 
 have somewhere seen, of a holy child, with 
 calm thoughtful brow, and innocent smile, 
 by which the painter designed to represent 
 religion. The child was seated amongst 
 purple clouds, and seemed to be gazing 
 through rays of glory, up to the great Foun- 
 tain of -eternal life ; but its locks were not so 
 golden, nor its eyes so heavenly blue as Cath- 
 leen's. Still you must hear her speak to be 
 fully sensible of the charm of her presence. 
 
 " And this reminds me that the object of 
 my writing was to call you home. My father 
 wishes you to come as quickly as you conve- 
 niently can, to perform the christian duty of 
 comforting the mourners at the Abbey, whose 
 melancholy task, in all human probability, 
 will soon be to close the eyes of their father. 
 They are both young, and wholly unsupported 
 except by the stimulus which will then have 
 
THE IRON RULE. 209 
 
 ceased. Come then, dear Mary, as quickly 
 as you can, for my sake and theirs. It is 
 wonderful how much my father has interested 
 himself in the afflictions of this family. If t 
 could forget his conduct in his own, I should 
 think he was a man of at least common feel- 
 ing. But experience is more powerful than 
 observation, and mine teaches me, that what- 
 ever his feeling may be for others, he pos- 
 sesses none for me. He desires me to add his 
 thanks to Mrs. Lee for her continued kind- 
 ness, and his cheerful acquiescence with her 
 proposal that Ellen should be left behind, to 
 pursue her studies more regularly than she 
 would do at home. I hear so much of Ellen's 
 beauty, that I long to see her ; yet quite agree 
 with my father that she is better with your 
 excellent friend than with us, for Welbourne 
 House is still shadowed with the cloud which 
 imparted an unnatural gloom to the atmo- 
 sphere of our infancy — which hangs around my 
 steps wherever I go, and threatens to pursue 
 me to the grave. 
 
210 HOME, OR 
 
 *' But come, dear Mary, you are more ne- 
 cessary to my existence than ever. As the 
 wearisome hours of life pass on, they are 
 marked by others with enjoyments that repay 
 them for the misery of living ; by me with 
 nothing but aspiring hopes that find no defi- 
 nite aim, and thus fall back upon my heart 
 like the withering ashes of the volcano, — by 
 visions of bright and glorious things that 
 never were, and never can be realized in such 
 a world as this, — by burning thoughts that find 
 no voice, and thus consume my being. 
 
 " The light is just beginning to gleam from 
 the window of the Abbey. Our friend still 
 lives. Sometimes I fancy the light is ob- 
 scured for a moment, and then I think that 
 Cathleen passes to and fro. Fool ! what is it 
 to me, if Cathleen should pass away for ever ? 
 Come, Mary, and if you cannot make me 
 happier or, better, try, at least, to make me 
 wiser than I am." 
 
 Although it is more than probable that the 
 light in the Abbey window was solely indebted 
 
THE IRON RULE. 211 
 
 to the imagination of Allan Grey for any pe- 
 culiarity in its appearance on the evening when 
 he wrote to his sister, yet that evening was un- 
 questionably fraught with events of sad and 
 solemn reality to the afflicted inhabitants of 
 the sick chamber : for it was the scene of the 
 last earthly suffering of a kind and generous 
 parent ; and when his fond farewell died away 
 with the last struggle of expiring nature, his 
 bereaved and desolate children drew closer 
 together, as if through the wide world they 
 now knew neither stay nor consolation but in 
 each other's love. 
 
 They were, indeed, peculiarly destitute. 
 Family differences, which ought long since 
 to have been swept away by the natural course 
 of time, had separated them from most of their 
 near kindred ; while pecuniary troubles, in which 
 their lost parent was more deeply involved 
 than he ever permitted them to suppose, had 
 rendered him negligent of former friendships 
 which he felt no longer capable of meeting 
 
212 HOME, OH 
 
 upon equal ground ; and, at the same time, 
 little solicitous of entering into new ones, ex- 
 cept in the instance of the Greys, whose society 
 he had sought solely for the sake of his chil- 
 dren, and because it could be maintained with- 
 out interference with his domestic habits. 
 
 That Mr. Malonehad been imprudent in the 
 extreme, there needed nothing more than the 
 education of his son to prove. Born to little 
 more than the inheritance of a lawsuit, upon 
 which property of considerable extent was 
 pending, Terence had received every qualifi- 
 cation it was in his father's power to impart, for 
 making him a gentleman, and wanted nothing 
 but the means ; which he was assured would be 
 ample, and fully established as his own, when 
 certain signatures should have been affixed to 
 certain deeds, when different and mysterious 
 forms of law should been gone through , and when 
 the lawyers, to whom the important case had 
 been committed, should have fully remunerated 
 themselves for the time and attention of years. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 213 
 
 y With these expectations, and an inborn de- 
 sire to escape from present annoyance, strength- 
 ened into habit by the blind indulgence of his 
 father, Terence was as ill fitted for the active 
 and useful occupations of a man of business, 
 as he was ill supported in the dubious capacity 
 of a gentleman. But his character was one not 
 to be awakened to any serious apprehension of 
 future evil, even by the sad aspect of the si- 
 tuation in which, at the death of his father, he 
 knew himself to be involved. The sense of 
 present calamity was all that weighed upon his 
 buoyant spirit ; and when he saw the sister 
 whom he idolized, sinking under the pressure 
 of affliction, his heart was occupied with a sym- 
 pathy so intense, as to leave neither thought 
 nor feeling for other and less interesting causes 
 of anxiety. 
 
 ** When will Mary return ?" was the question 
 he asked of Allan every time they met : for he, 
 like her own family, had learned to expect from 
 her care and kindness all the support and con- 
 
214 HOME, OR 
 
 solation their urgent wants required. Even 
 Cathleen, partaking of the general sentiment, 
 associated with the ideal character of Mary, the 
 protection and the tenderness of a long-tried 
 friend. 
 
 At last she came. The tidings of Mr.Malone's 
 death had hastened her return, but it was not 
 until the evening after the funeral, that she 
 reached her home ; and the degree of unre- 
 served intercourse between the families at the 
 Hall and the Abbey, to which sickness and sor- 
 row had lent their sanction, induced Mary to 
 lose no time in proving to the mourners how 
 entirely she participated in their distress. 
 
 No kindred, no friends, except Stephen Grey 
 and his son Allan, had graced the obsequies of 
 him who had once been the idol of a brilliant 
 circle — who had once been looked upon as the 
 moving spring in the world of wit and gallantry 
 in which he lived. The doors of the old man- 
 sion were open as usual, but the halls were 
 vacant ; and all the outward vestige that re- 
 
THE IRON RULE. 215 
 
 mained of any important or extraordinary oc- 
 casion, was the traces of the wheels of the 
 hearse on the green turf of the court-yard. 
 
 In a wide chamber, dimly lighted, Mary 
 found the brother and sister, with no compa- 
 nionship but their sorrow, and no occuj)ation 
 but that of silently recalling instances of long- 
 cherished affection, and weeping its irrepara- 
 ble loss. 
 
 Terence advanced to meet the friend whose 
 presence realized his only remaining hope, with 
 a burst of tears that bespoke the impetuosity 
 of his grief; while Cathleen, whose delicate 
 frame had been exhausted by long vigils and 
 unremitting attention to her suffering parent, 
 remained almost motionless in the same chair 
 he used to occupy, looking as if she had no 
 other business in this world but to walk in her 
 father's footsteps to the grave. 
 
 Mary embraced her with the love of a sister, 
 and Cathleen's soul was one to be penetrated 
 in a moment by the slightest proof of tender- 
 
216 HOME, OR 
 
 ness from those she regarded with esteem. 
 With this embrace, sanctifying the hour of de- 
 solation, the indissoluble bond of their friend- 
 ship was sealed ; and henceforward, Mary went 
 and came like a ministering angel, bringing 
 consolation to the mourners, and taking away 
 with her, after each interview, renewed desires 
 to devote herself, with constancy and zeal, to 
 their happiness and their welfare, now and for 
 ever. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 217 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 In the mean time Allan went each morning: 
 with his father, silent and spiritless, to pursue 
 his task of duty — to transcribe, and ponder 
 over words and figures that to him were no 
 signs of ideas, to wander in imagination through 
 regions of Arcadian bliss, or to lose himself in 
 the mazy labyrinths of sentimental musing ; 
 while his vacant eye glanced listlessly over 
 the page upon which it was his business to 
 calculate and note down the pecuniary gains 
 and losses of sordid speculation, coarse traffic, 
 or vulgar toil. In vain did the authoritative 
 voice of his father call him to attention. In 
 vain did the exasperated and contemptuous 
 
 VOL. I. L 
 
218 HOME, OR 
 
 clerks pronounce him incapable of bookkeep- 
 ing. Stephen Grey still believing that young 
 men could be compelled to do as their superiors 
 commanded, worked upon him with the tre- 
 mendous engine of his wrath. The busy clerks 
 and curious tradespeople looked askance at 
 the fair countenance and graceful form of their 
 young companion, as he took his place amongst 
 them, and shook their sagacious heads in tes- 
 timony of their conviction of the utter worth- 
 lessness of such items in the sum total of 
 mankind ; and those who had long been the 
 pillars of his father's commercial dignity, pro- 
 phesied darkly and ominously of the down- 
 ward fortunes of the son. And all the while 
 the heedless youth was dreaming on, instead 
 of fulfilling the plain practical duties of the 
 day ; when he ought to have turned a sharp 
 and curious ear to the clink of his father's 
 cash, listening to the sound of ideal voices, to 
 the melody of unseen waterfalls, or to the song 
 of birds with golden wings ; and when he 
 
THE IRON RULE. 219 
 
 ought to have been balancing accounts, and 
 calculating jirices, comparing the shining 
 locks of Cathleen that fell over her fair tem- 
 ples and her neck, to sunbeams resting upon 
 a snow clad mountain, when morning first 
 dawns upon its pure and trackless wastes. 
 
 It is not in nature for thoughts and feelings 
 such as filled the soul of Allan Grey to exist 
 without a language and a voice. To such 
 impassioned and imaginative minds, poetry is 
 the only medium through which they can hold 
 spiritual converse with the ideal beings of 
 their own creation, who people and animate 
 the mysterious world in which they live. 
 Allan committed himself in verse, and left 
 the written record of his folly amongst other 
 papers upon the official desk. There needed 
 but this one act of enormity to stamp hist^ha- 
 racter with the stigma of irremediable dis- 
 grace. A distant relative, whose interest it 
 was to keep Allan from promotion in his 
 father's business, discovered the ill-fated lines, 
 and presented them to Stephen Grey. 
 
 L 2 
 
•220 HOME, OR 
 
 The consternation of the farmer whose well 
 stocked barns are threatened by a few dark 
 words of combustible import with the awful 
 signature of " Swing," could not exceed that 
 of the astonished father as he looked upon the 
 lines — some long, some short — condemned by 
 actual rhyme and metre, and set forth in 
 the handwriting of his son. The words were 
 these : 
 
 TO PEACE. 
 
 Oh ! I am weary with the fruitless toil 
 
 That brings no recompense of joy to me; 
 
 For I am toss'd upon a stormy sea, 
 Where tempests rage, where angry billows boil. 
 Where the frail bark, their victim and their spoil. 
 
 Swift o'er the heaving surge no more can flee. 
 J And still, sweet minister of rest, to thee 
 I call, and still my baffled hopes recoil. 
 
 Yet come, oh come, and fan me with thy wings 
 Into that sleep, whose troubled dreams are o'er. 
 
 Come, gentle Peace ! Thine angel ^isitings 
 Like spring birds resting on a desert shore, 
 
 Soothe the lone heart mth melody, that brings 
 Tidings of summer flowers, where flowers shall bloom 
 no more. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 221 
 
 Could any thing have been more at variance 
 with common sense ? — with common pru- 
 dence ? — would have been an observation more 
 to the point ; for the clerks exchanged know- 
 ing glances with each other, and the favourite 
 drew closer to the side of his patron, as he 
 perused the lines, one and all reading the sen- 
 tence of poor Allan as it darkened into awful 
 and legible characters on his father's face. 
 
 The eye of Stephen Grey was not diverted 
 by any other object, until it had scanned the 
 length and the depth of the poem, even to^the 
 long line with which the inexperienced writer 
 believed that all sonnets ought to terminate. 
 Here, however, it made a sudden transition to 
 the countenance of the culprit, who, lost in 
 one of his deep reveries, remained wholly un- 
 conscious of the net his evil genius had been 
 weaving around him. But there was some- 
 thing in his father's eye, pale, and cold, and 
 glassy as it was, that seemed to have the power 
 of the basilisk, and Allan started, to feel it 
 
222 HOME, OR 
 
 fixed upon him with the ominous expression 
 he had learned to regard as the unfailing har- 
 binger of a storm. 
 
 " Are you the author of these lines ?" asked 
 Stephen Grey, with perfect composure. 
 
 " I am," replied Allan, blushing deeply, 
 for he began to think it possible his father 
 might have found some merit in them. 
 
 "Then I now know," continued Stephen 
 Grey, holding up the badge of disgrace be- 
 tween his finger and thumb, as if it had been 
 some delicate morsel for the palate of an epi- 
 cure, " how it is that your time is wasted, and 
 your small share of talent so grossly and so 
 wantonly abused, — how it is also that my name 
 and my house are disgraced with a worthless 
 and inefficient member. Here, Gibbins, take 
 this precious specimen of my son's abilities, 
 and show it round the office to all the 
 clerks." 
 
 Gibbins was delighted, and went, with 
 step alert, broad smile, and head thro\^^l back, 
 
THE IRON RULE. 223 
 
 to the first — the second — and so on to all the 
 junior members of the establishment, and 
 Allan listened to the suppressed laughter of 
 those who implicitly believed the lines to be 
 ridiculous, because they were unable to under- 
 stand them. But while his very soul revolted 
 from the insult so publicly and unfeelingly 
 offered by his father, he maintained a calm, 
 unaltered countenance, detennined that his 
 own consciousness of degradation should afford 
 no additional cause of triumph. 
 
 In this manner, Stephen Grey deemed it 
 politic to wound and irritate a mind peculiarly 
 susceptible of pain, unconscious that by apply- 
 ing such violent means to root out what he 
 called " unpardonable folly," he was neces- 
 sarily sowing the fatal seeds of filial distrust 
 and dislike ; and it is possible that this system 
 diligently pursued, might, at last, have in- 
 duced the young poet to sacrifice his muse for 
 the sake of obtaining the peace for which he 
 pined, but that the evening of each day 
 
224 HOME, OR 
 
 brought with it fresh stimulus to his muse, — 
 fresh inspiration to his lyre. 
 
 Like some of the fabled victims of enchant- 
 ment, compelled, for their daily punishment, to 
 endure for a few hours the existence they most 
 loathed, and then permitted to resume their owti 
 form and character, until the return of the 
 hated moment of transformation ; Allan Grey 
 no sooner beheld, on returning home, the dim 
 light from the single window of the Abbey, and 
 the rugged outline of its distant walls, than 
 he was once more himself, — free to live and 
 move in the world he loved, and to claim 
 kindred with congenial minds. 
 
 Terence Malone had so little of what was 
 melancholy or romantic in his nature, that 
 he had never been able to go along with Allan 
 in his poetic flights, but Cathleen's was a 
 sister spirit. More highly, or rather, more 
 delicately cultivated than her brother, she 
 was able to comprehend and appreciate the 
 mental exaltation of his friend, and could not 
 
THE IRON RULE. 225 
 
 only penetrate with him into the minute and 
 hidden sources of actual pain and pleasure, 
 but soar as well into the regions of imagina- 
 tion, where he had hitherto maintained an iso- 
 lated, yet charmed existence. 
 
 Perhaps there never was a mortal being of 
 high intellectual capabilities, who did not ex- 
 perience an insatiable thirst for something it 
 believed itself born to attain, or to pursue. 
 If such extraordinary capability be purely 
 intellectual, the thirst of the soul can only 
 be allayed by the investigation of truth, under 
 whatever form it may be concealed, or in what- 
 ever character it may be embodied. But if 
 the capability be one of feeling, rather than of 
 understanding, the mind thus animated will 
 spend its energies in search of sympathy, and 
 wherever it finds it, will strike root and live, 
 though the soil should be sterile as the desert 
 sands, and the atmosphere around one uni- 
 versal blight, with neither rain nor dew to 
 invigorate its growth. 
 
 L 3 
 
226 HOME, OR 
 
 Such was the character of Allan Grey, 
 though he knew not till be found a mind 
 similarly constituted with his own, for what 
 he had been searching through the realms of 
 nature and of art in vain. His sister Mary 
 had been, and still was, the comfort of his 
 life ; but she neither saw the world as he did, 
 nor reaped from the tree of knowledge the 
 same fruit. His griefs he had always been 
 accustomed to share with her ; but even his 
 circumscribed and isolated existence had af- 
 forded some intense enjoyments which he had 
 hitherto longed in vain to find a friend who 
 was capable of participating. Now he was 
 lonely no more. Nature, poetry, and music, 
 spoke in the same voice to Cathleen, as to him. 
 Like two wandering spirits who had long 
 sought kindred fellowship, they found their 
 home in each other's hearts ; and young, ar- 
 dent, and susceptible, learned too soon to 
 double the importance of every enjoyment 
 which they shared together. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 227 
 
 With minds less calculated for the imaginary 
 than the real, Mary and Terence watched the 
 growing intimacy of the two friends, some- 
 times smiling, and sometimes looking with 
 serious disapprobation upon their ardent and 
 romantic attachment. Perhaps it would have 
 been wiser for them, had they remembered 
 that there are other kinds of sympathy than 
 that which belongs exclusively to poetry. 
 But their experience was of that time of life 
 alone, when we are too much occupied by 
 feeling, to examine the nature of our sensa- 
 tions; and while every returning day brought 
 them the happiness of each other's society, the 
 free interchange of mutual thought, and the 
 confidential communion which a slight ac- 
 quaintance with sorrow, and an ardent wish to 
 console, produces in generous minds, they 
 were too well satisfied with themselves and 
 their present situation, to look with anxious 
 inquiry into the future. 
 
 Nor was it a slight degree of internal satis- 
 
228 HOME, OR 
 
 faction that was needed to support Mary under 
 the trials of the present hour, of which she 
 had as usual more than her proper share. 
 Cathleen was fast losing the look of rosy 
 health with which she first met the eye of her 
 young admirer. Her step had lately become 
 languid, and the burning blush which on the 
 slightest emotion mounted to her cheek, was 
 immediately followed by an unnatural and 
 almost deadly paleness. 
 
 When Mary first mentioned her fears to 
 Terence, he laughed, and said his sister owed 
 her varying colour to the fluttering wings of 
 Cupid ; but more serious observation con- 
 vinced him that there was indeed a deeper 
 cause for anxiety than the uncertain throbbing 
 of a love-lorn maiden's pulse. 
 
 Cathleen herself, however, seemed wholly 
 unconscious of any important change. She 
 made no complaint, but continued to exert 
 herself, even more than was consistent with 
 her safety ; and seldom suffered Allan to leave 
 
THE IRON RULE. 229 
 
 her, without having indulged him with some 
 of the sweetest melodies of her native country, 
 which she played and sung with peculiar taste 
 and feeling. 
 
 There is something so deeply affecting in 
 these struggles of a young and buoyant spirit 
 against the encroachments of disease, as of 
 itself to attract and interest the mere observer ; 
 but when beauty is threatened with decay — 
 when the pure bright eyes of innocence and 
 love look the destroyer in the face, with perfect 
 unconsciousness of his fatal design, we natu- 
 rally cling to the supposed victim as if T^;e 
 could ward off the blow; and cherish its 
 loveliness, and dote upon its perfections, as if 
 the might of human affection could shelter the 
 fair flowers of earth, and protect them from 
 the blight of death. 
 
 There needed not this additional bond of 
 interest to make the love of Allan Grey more 
 constant, nor this fiery ordeal to render it- 
 more pure. He, too, had watched the chang- 
 
230 HOME, OR 
 
 ing colour on the cheek of Cathleen. He had 
 marked her languid eye, and ohserved her 
 feeble step ; but he shrunk from making them 
 the subject of conversation, even with his 
 sister ; and when she first began to remark 
 upon it in his presence, he bit his lip, and 
 turned away in silence : so much do we desire 
 to shun the voice that speaks but to confirm 
 our fears. 
 
 Nor was the situation of Cathleen all that 
 troubled Mary's peace of mind. Her father's 
 house was a scene of constant misunderstand- 
 ing, and of frequent dissatisfaction and gloom. 
 The intimacy with Terence and his sister had 
 been permitted from a sense of duty ; but 
 Stephen Grey possessed not the Christian 
 grace which converts an act of duty into a 
 pleasure. While Terence Malone was over- 
 whelmed with trouble, he could pity and 
 forgive his faults ; but having made an unsuc- 
 cessful proposal to him, of taking a place in 
 his ofiice, and having since then seen him 
 
THE IRON RULE. 231 
 
 recover his wonted cheerfulness and vivacity, 
 it was extremely difficult to regard his impru- 
 dence and inconsistency even with toleration ; 
 nor was it, on the other hand, an easy task for 
 Terence to accommodate himself to the stern 
 solemnity of the man whom it was his interest 
 as well as his desire, to conciliate. His natural 
 love of laughter was perpetually bursting 
 forth on the most inappropriate occasions; 
 and while Allan and Cathleen too often yielded 
 to the infection, Mary was left to struggle 
 alike with her own inclination, and with her 
 father's strong aversion to such unauthorized 
 and unbecoming conduct. In vain did Mary 
 watch the latent mischief lurking in the eye 
 of Terence, with a view to extinguish the 
 embers ere they produced an explosion. Te- 
 rence was one who would rather lose his 
 dinner than his jest, and all that was left for 
 Mary was, to divert her father's attention, by 
 endeavouring to converse with him on other 
 subjects, and in private defending the culprits 
 
232 HOME, OR 
 
 with a zeal that not unfrequently drew down 
 extreme displeasure upon herself. 
 
 These private interviews were of such a 
 nature, as would have broken the spirit, and 
 quenched the enthusiasm of almost any other 
 woman ; but, beneath a calm and humble 
 exterior, Mary Grey possessed a firmness of 
 which she was little suspected, and a perti- 
 nacity in serving her friends, which no con- 
 sequences it brought upon herself were pow- 
 erful enough to subdue, or even to restrain. 
 
 It was when alone with Mary, that Stephen 
 Grey now vented his accumulating indignation 
 against Terence and Allan, with his contempt 
 for poor Cathleen, deeming them unworthy to 
 hear it delivered from his own lips ; and when 
 he had sentenced the brother and sister to 
 their just portion of beggary and degradation, 
 he used to wind up his animadversions upon 
 Allan, by accusing him of idleness, and, as a 
 necessary consequence in his opinion, of every 
 vice. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 233 
 
 " You forget," Mary would sometimes say, 
 when her courage was wrought up to the 
 highest pitch, " that poor Allan never had the 
 choice of occupation with v» hich his brothers 
 were indulged. In some other situation it is 
 probable he would exert himself more." 
 
 '' In a playhouse," replied her father, " I 
 have little doubt but he would. Say no more 
 on his behalf. You do not know him so well 
 as I do. It is not likely that you should ; for 
 I watch him day by day, and see that he is 
 utterly regardless of his best interests — indo- 
 lent, worthless, and unprincipled." 
 
 " No, no," exclaimed Mary with warmth, 
 " you must not say that of Allan. Like us 
 all, he has his faults ; but there is a wide dif- 
 ference between such faults as his, and actual 
 vices." 
 
 " I know of no greater vice than idleness," 
 resumed her father. And here the. disputed 
 point used generally to rest ; for, upon the 
 principle that inattention to one particular 
 
234 HOME, OR 
 
 line of business must arise from natural and 
 incorrigible idleness, and that such idleness 
 is necessarily connected with the willing per- 
 formance of every dishonest and despicable 
 action, it was not easy to defend Allan Grey, 
 even from the frequently implied suspicion, 
 that his father's money was not safe in pass- 
 ing through his hands. 
 
 Stephen Grey was, in reality, incapable of 
 understanding any kind of virtue but what 
 belonged to the maintenance of an unsullied 
 name as an upright tradesman, and a useful 
 neighbour. Of the merits of heroic suffering, 
 of self devotion, or self sacrifice, he knew 
 nothing. If ever he heard such things spoken 
 of, he thought them all romance and unintel- 
 ligible jargon ; and few persons were either so 
 imprudent, or so lavish of their speech, as to 
 waste such words upon his ear. 
 
 The unfortunate sonnet left by Allan Grey 
 upon his desk, was not the only proof of his 
 incompetency to act the part of an honest and 
 
THE IRON RULE. 235 
 
 useful member of society. He had been so 
 much delighted with the beautiful Irish ballad 
 of " Kathleen O'More," that she whose name 
 had its due weight in adding to the fascination 
 of the lines, and whose voice lent a tenfold 
 charm to the music, could not refuse to copy 
 the notes and the words for him with her own 
 hand; and Allan, either believing himself not 
 quite perfect in both, or finding some other 
 reason as efficient for their not being long- 
 absent from his sight, took the fair page along 
 with him to town, and bestowed upon it many 
 a stolen glance, when his thoughts ought to 
 have been elsewhere. 
 
 An unwonted press of business that day 
 created more than usual bustle and confusion 
 in the office. Desks were rifled, drawers 
 ransacked, and papers shuffled to and fro ; 
 and thus an opportunity was afforded for Gib- 
 bins, whose eager eye was watchful over 
 Allan's movements, to discover his secret trea- 
 sure, which he contrived with his meddling 
 
236 HOME, OR 
 
 fingers to lay open to the observation of his 
 master, who at that moment was approaching. 
 
 Gentle reader, does t'ly recollection furnish 
 thee with a single instance of a precious object 
 falling under the inspection of merciless eyes, 
 incapable of perceiving its merit, when those 
 eyes have not rested exactly upon the part 
 thou wouldest have wished to conceal from 
 their observation ? 
 
 The instance of Allan Grey was no excep- 
 tion to this rule . He watched his father reading 
 (for on such occasions he was accustomed to 
 read all) until he came to the milking of the 
 " dun cow," that verse of dubious pathos, even 
 when accompanied by the aid of music. Here 
 Stephen Grey read aloud, slowly, and delibe- 
 rately, but with monotonous and solemn into- 
 nation, remarking as he concluded, that it 
 would be well if a Cathleen of their acquain- 
 tance would sometimes employ herself in 
 milking a dun cow, as in all probability she 
 would have to do worse than that, or starve. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 237 
 
 It was comparatively easy to hear tlie con- 
 tempt with which the lines were read, and 
 afterwards to see them torn in pieces and 
 cast into the fire ; but this unfeeling remark 
 upon one so gentle, and so much an object 
 of tenderness and compassion, made an in- 
 delible impression upon a heart not addicted 
 to vindictive reminiscences, and helped to 
 extinguish the natural affection Allan had 
 long been striving in vain to cherish for his 
 father. 
 
 " Is this all you have brought for your 
 private edification to-day?" asked Stephen 
 Grey, when the last fragment of the song was 
 consumed. 
 
 " You may search my papers," replied 
 Allan, determined to make no resistance, and 
 exhibit no symptoms of concealment. 
 
 His papers were accordingly examined by 
 his father and Gibbins, nor was it long before 
 the latter discovered a pencil sketch of a 
 female head, which fortunately for the artist 
 
238 HOME, OR 
 
 was so little like the object it was intended to 
 represent, as not to be recognised. 
 
 " This is too good for the flames," exclaimed 
 Gibbins laughing. 
 
 " Place it above the fire," said his master, 
 " that all the world may see what a hopeful 
 son I am blessed with." 
 
 By such means he expected to make Allan 
 ashamed of his own absurdity ; but there is a 
 kind of violence under which the gentlest dis- 
 position becomes firm ; and so far from acknow- 
 ledging his fault, Allan looked his father boldly 
 in the face, and telling him it was the last time 
 he should make his appearance in that office, 
 deliberately took up his hat and walked home. 
 
 For the first mile he trod the ground as if 
 he spurned its obduracy, and resisted its con- 
 tamination. For the next he walked more 
 warily, though still with haughty step ; but 
 the way seemed longer than he had calculated 
 upon, and the unwonted excitement of the 
 morning, being followed, as such emotions 
 
THE IRON RULE. 239 
 
 usually are, by an almost insupportable de- 
 pression, he sunk at last into the weariness of 
 the humblest pilgrim ; and by the time he 
 reached the village of Welbourne, his knees 
 were ready to smite against each other, and he 
 felt as if reduced to a level with those homeless 
 wanderers who ask the bread of charity, and 
 seek the shelter of the poor-house. 
 
 On turning into the road leading directly to 
 his father's house, and past that to the Abbey, 
 he started at finding himself suddenly confron- 
 ted by Terence Malone in earnest conversation 
 with a gentleman on horseback, whom he im- 
 mediately recognised as a physician from the 
 neighbouring town ; and had the apparition 
 been that of death on the pale horse, he could 
 scarcely have looked more aghast. 
 
 In order to spare his feelings, Terence had 
 said nothing of his intention to call in the aid 
 of medical advice, of which he expected to 
 have the full benefit without the chance of 
 detection, while his friend was away. Nor 
 
240 HOME, OR 
 
 was Terence himself looking more alive than 
 Allan. Not that the doctor had said any thing 
 of his sister's case to occasion immediate 
 alarai, but by a few inadvertent words, he had 
 that morning awakened him to a full and 
 feeling sense of his own want of means to pro- 
 cure such indulgences as he would willingly 
 have lavished upon Cathleen in the most ex- 
 travagant profusion. 
 
 " Well, what does he say?" inquired Allan, 
 determined to rush at once upon the worst, as 
 soon as the doctor had wished them both good 
 morning. 
 
 " He says — " replied Terence, and then he 
 stood still, and leaned upon the arm of his 
 friend, while a convulsion of pain passed over 
 his usually happy countenance. 
 
 " Tell me all !" exclaimed Allan, fearing the 
 worst for Cathleen. " Is the case so decided? 
 Is there indeed no hope?" 
 
 *' Oh yes," sighed Terence, '* there is hope 
 — no positive disease — only a tendency — " 
 
THE IRON RULE. 241 
 
 ** Thank God!" interrupted Allan; *'but 
 what can make you look so wretched, when 
 she may yet be restored ?" 
 
 Terence grasped his arm more firmly, held 
 down his head, and trod with all his might 
 upon a bunch of primroses growing by the 
 way-side. At last he spoke. 
 
 '* There is hope for Cathleen, Allan, if she 
 can live in the south of France, or in Italy, or 
 make a voyage up the Mediterranean." 
 " Not otherwise ?" 
 Terence shook his head. 
 " Then surely you will go." 
 "Allan," said his friend, with a gasp of 
 despair, " I never knew before, what people 
 meant when they talked of the bitterness of 
 poverty ; — I have not the means !" 
 " You can sell the Abbey." 
 " No ; it is not mine to sell. It is supposed 
 to belong to the party with whom we are at 
 law ; and we only live in it by sufferance until 
 the case shall be decided." 
 
 VOL, I. M 
 
242 HOME, OR 
 
 A long silence ensued, for the two friends 
 were so devoted to the sufferer, and so enthu- 
 siastic in their devotion, that in imagining 
 ways and means for her assistance, they scru- 
 pled not to dwell upon some that were neither 
 justified by law nor reason, though they 
 would have blushed to tell each other how far 
 they had deviated from probability, and com- 
 mon sense. At last, Terence found language 
 for a comparatively rational thought. 
 
 " I will write to these stupid lawyers," said 
 he, " and tell them that an angel is perishing 
 while they delay ; and in the mean time, 
 Allan, you must assist me, and with the little 
 that I have, it is possible that something may 
 be done." 
 
 "I?" said Allan, with a blank look of utter 
 destitution, "I assist you? I have this very 
 morning thrown away my only chance of ever 
 being able even to provide my own bread . I can 
 do nothing in conjunction with my father, and 
 therefore I have resigned my place in his office." 
 
THE IRON RULE. 243 
 
 " But you have talents." 
 
 " And so have you." 
 
 *' I wonder what they are," said Terence, 
 as the familiar smile once more stole over his 
 countenance. '* Here we stand upon the king's 
 highway, two as competent young fellows as 
 you can find out of Bedlam, willing to ex- 
 change our wits for ready money, they being- 
 all we possess, but, unfortunately, not know- 
 ing where to find customers for so valuable a 
 commodity." 
 
 While his companion was speaking, Allan 
 had fallen into one of his deep reveries. The 
 word talent had put him upon thinking of 
 his own capabilities ; and ere he had reached 
 his father's door, he had formed a scheme 
 for bringing his talents into action. 
 
 M 2 
 
244 HOME, OR 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Had Allan Grey communicated to his father, 
 or to the clerks in his father's office, the design 
 his fertile imagination had given birth to, for 
 maintaining himself and assisting his friends, 
 they would unanimously have exchanged their 
 sentence of fool for that of madman. Such as 
 the design was, however, it filled the whole 
 soul of the enthusiast, and enabled him to meet, 
 without flinching, the stern eye of his father 
 when he returned from town ; while Mary, who 
 had no such absorbing speculations to occupy 
 her thoughts, in trembling apprehension for 
 the brother she loved, presented herself before 
 her father, in order that she might receive the 
 
THE IRON RULE. 246 
 
 first shock of his displeasure. Her fears, how- 
 ever, were for the present, groundless. No 
 anger was expressed in words, for it was con- 
 sidered more consistent with the dignity of an 
 insulted parent to treat the offender with silent 
 contempt ; and he was therefore permitted to 
 eat at his father's table, and to sleep beneath 
 his roof, without the slightest or most casual 
 acknowledgment of his presence. 
 
 Perhaps no other line of conduct could have 
 made the food and the shelter of which Allan 
 now partook so hateful to him as this ; and had 
 the pecuniary means been at this time within his 
 reach, it is more than probable he would have 
 left his father'^s house for ever. But there was 
 one method (and, perhaps, the only effectual 
 one for enforcing the submission of grown-up 
 xjhildren,) so rigorously adhered to by Stephen 
 Grey, that the spirit of open rebellion was no 
 sooner awakened under his dominion, than it 
 died away for want of power and liberty to 
 exert its strength. As his children advanced 
 
246 HOME, OR 
 
 in years, he could not awe them into obedience 
 as he had done in their infancy ; but as their 
 wants increased, he could withhold the means 
 of gratification, and, in some measure, subdue 
 them to his will by depriving them of access 
 to any possible resources. 
 
 How Allan's wounded spirit revolted from 
 this peculiar kind of control, can only be fully 
 understood by those, who after having resolved 
 to escape from thraldom, have looked into an 
 empty purse; who, while suspecting that they 
 were grudged the very sustenance of life, have 
 felt their incapability to purchase it elsewhere ; 
 and who, having dared to rebel against ex- 
 isting authority, have looked forward to a day 
 when they should be under the necessity of ask- 
 ing pecuniary assistance from the same source. 
 
 If this situation will not bring down the in- 
 dependent spirit, what will ? 
 
 Mary pleaded tenderly with her brother, and 
 hinted, with extreme delicacy, at the expedi- 
 ency of yielding to his father's wishes ; but as 
 
THE IRON RULE. 247 
 
 the stimulus for action increased, Allan felt his 
 powers of exertion and resistance increase in 
 the same proportion ; and though the plan he 
 had formed for his own aggrandizement would 
 have been looked upon by a worldly and expe- 
 rienced eye as altogether fallacious and chi- 
 merical, to that of the young poet it wore a 
 totally different character, and had, besides, 
 the strong recommendation of being the only 
 scheme that lay within his reach to execute. 
 
 From his childhood Allan had practised the 
 art of drawing with considerable taste and skill ; 
 but since his acquaintance with Cathleen, who, 
 in addition to her natural talent, had enjoyed 
 the advantage of the best instruction, he had 
 improved so rapidly, as to aspire, without much 
 presumption, to the merit of an artist. His 
 likenesses were pronounced admirable, because 
 they were generally known; and some of the 
 dutiful sons and daughters in the village of 
 Welbourne and the neighbourhood, had asked 
 him, half in jest and half in earnest, to give 
 
248 HOME, OR 
 
 them sketches of their parents : for Allan was 
 an universal favourite with old people ; and 
 many a shrivelled spinster would have cheer- 
 fully consented to sit, for the comely youth to 
 pourtray her faded charms. 
 
 Amongst the rest, was a worthy family of the 
 most respectable class of farmers, with whom 
 Mary and Allan were in the habit of exchanging 
 kind offices, and at whose hospitable house 
 they spent, once or twice in the year, a plea- 
 sant social evening. 
 
 This family afforded Allan his first hope ; but 
 it was a hope he still cherished in secret, too 
 well knowing that even his kindest judge, his 
 sister Mary, would have condemned it as futile ; 
 while to have exposed it to Terence and his sis- 
 ter, would have been to strike a death blow at 
 once to his resolution. Indeed, such were the 
 habits and sentiments in which they had been 
 educated, and such their total ignorance of the 
 practical duties of life, that while they talked, 
 in extravagant language, of what they would 
 
THE IRON RULE. 249 
 
 do and suffer for the sake of obtaining money, 
 their ideas were always of desperate sacrifices, 
 producing the immediate reward of absolute 
 wealth. Of the drudgery required to obtain 
 the remuneration of shillings and pence, they 
 knew no more than the monarch on his throne ; 
 and would probably have looked with the same 
 wonder and contempt upon the process by 
 which Allan proposed to supply his empty 
 purse. 
 
 There is a zest imparted to our resolutions 
 by secrecy as well as hope ; and the young 
 artist felt both in their full force as he traced 
 the hedge-row path, leading by a circuitous 
 course to the residence of farmer Wells. 
 
 The quacking of an innumerable multitude 
 of ducks, and the discordant cackling of other 
 poultry, announcing his approach, were sounds 
 well calculated to rouse the poet to a sense of 
 the reality of actual life ; and as he strode 
 along the dubious causeway which led by a 
 wicket entrance into the orchard, pursued all 
 
 M 3 
 
250 HOME, OR 
 
 the way by the outstretched neck of an imper- 
 tinent gander, it is more than probable that 
 some painful apprehensions of things remote, 
 as well as immediate, flitted across his mind. 
 But of these the autobiography of Allan Grey 
 bears no record, and we have no right to 
 surmise. 
 
 Arrived at the wide hall door, he knocked 
 loudly, but waited for a welcome before he 
 ventured in ; and who should appear to an- 
 swer his summons, but Mrs. Wells herself — 
 clad in holland apron, close cap, and russet 
 gown, and evidently having just escaped from 
 the laborious manufacture of her celebrated 
 cheese. 
 
 Had Miss Wells, or Miss Lydia, given him 
 the welcome, his resolution would have stood 
 unshaken, for they read Lord Byron, sung 
 Moore's Melodies, and understood a little of 
 what belongs to the fine arts ; but to talk to 
 a bustling farmer's wife in the broad daylight 
 of busy noon, about sitting for her likeness. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 251 
 
 was an absurdity of which Allan, visionary as 
 he was, felt himself wholly incapable ; and 
 asking for Miss Wells or her sister, he was 
 ushered into a vacant parlour, where he 
 waited until the young ladies had doffed their 
 morning dresses, and pinned on the pink rib- 
 bons designed to impart an additional glow 
 to their already blooming charms. 
 
 At last the two girls made their appearance, 
 and Allan was unexpectedly betrayed into his 
 wonted greeting of kindness and gallantry, 
 when he ought to have commenced the busi- 
 ness of the day exclusively as one who comes 
 to take away with him an equivalent for the 
 labour of his hands. 
 
 *' I have come to take your likenesses," 
 said he, with a look and manner that turned 
 the whole affair into a jest. " Your mother's 
 first, if you please, for you know she was so 
 good as to say she would patronise me when I 
 became a travelling artist." 
 
 The young ladies now tittered, and said Mr. 
 
252 HOME, OR 
 
 Allan was always so droll; but one of them 
 ran to fetch her mother, and when, with much 
 difficulty, they had been made to understand 
 that the design of their visitor was serious, 
 they all exclaimed how kind he was — how 
 good to take that trouble — how delighted 
 they should be to have all their portraits hung 
 up, if only to surprise uncle Benjamin when 
 he came to see them at Christmas. 
 
 Amidst the confusion of voices, one thing, 
 however, was clearly intelligible — they had 
 no idea — not the most distant, that Allan was 
 expecting money for all his trouble, and the 
 resolution he had brought with him proved 
 far from sufficient for the necessary explana- 
 tion. 
 
 ** Well," thought he, as he took out his 
 pencils, and began to operate upon the old 
 lady, " these people have been very kind and 
 neighbourly, and when poor Mr. Malone was 
 ill, used to send every day, for his acceptance, 
 some delicacy which their own hands had 
 
THE IRON RULE. 253 
 
 made. If I succeed with them, they will 
 spread my fame in the neighbourhood, and 
 they are richly deserving of all the pains I can 
 bestow upon them." 
 
 Still, had Allan known exactly how his first 
 advances would be received, he would have 
 limited his operations to the senior members 
 of the family. But he had plunged in, not 
 knowing upon what terms, and his kindness 
 being accepted on the broadest scale, there 
 was nothing for it but proceeding regularly 
 downwards, from old Christopher Wells to 
 his youngest son, taking in the nose and ears 
 of the great shepherd's dog, without whom 
 they did not consider their family complete. 
 
 This extensive performance necessarily oc- 
 cupied a good deal of time, but Allan was so 
 accustomed to wander in the fields, to loiter 
 at the Abbey, and to be, nobody but himself 
 knew where, that little note was taken of his 
 absence from home ; and he had actually 
 completed the whole series of portraits, with- 
 
254 HOME, OR 
 
 out the cause of that absence having been 
 discovered. 
 
 Long before the finishing touch was given 
 to the round bluff face of little Thomas Wells, 
 Allan had discovered that the diligent labourer 
 in this peculiar calling is richly worthy of his 
 hire ; and that, previous to his accepting the 
 proposals of those who were so charmed with 
 his pictures, as to wish to see their own faces 
 depicted in the same style, it was highly 
 necessary to rouse himself to explain upon 
 what terms they could be gratified. Mrs. 
 Wells was the individual he chose to com- 
 municate with on this important occasion, and 
 he made his choice as we often do in circum- 
 stances of distressing delicacy, because she was 
 the person least likely to feel exactly as he did 
 on the subject; for there are cases when we 
 are too proud to be condoled with, and reject 
 all sympathy, from its very inadequacy to alle- 
 viate our sufferings 
 
 ** I am glad your friends think the portraits 
 
THE IRON RULE. 255 
 
 like," said Allan to the good woman of the 
 house, as he prepared to take his final leave. 
 
 " Like ! They must be either blind or stupid 
 to think otherwise," replied Mrs. Wells. 
 " My only vexation is that you should have 
 taken so much trouble about us, and our faces; 
 but, as you say, practice makes perfect, and you 
 may have been improving your hand upon us. 
 Still, Mr. Allan, if there was any thing we 
 could do in return — any thing in the world — " 
 
 " I will tell you, my good friend," replied 
 Allan, "what you can do;" and then he 
 blushed, and hesitated, until the simple-hearted 
 woman began to think whether he had not 
 cast a kindly eye upon one of her daughters. 
 " I will tell you what you can do," continued 
 Allan, beginning the sentence again, with 
 more breath to utter it. " You can recommend 
 me to your friends." 
 
 "Ah!" exclaimed Mrs. Wells, "I have 
 done that already. There is Mr. Jackson, 
 Mrs. Wilkinson, and the three Miss Millers, 
 all wild to have their likenesses taken." 
 
256 HOME, OR 
 
 '* But you must recommend me as an artist," 
 said Allan. 
 
 " And that I am sure you are," continued 
 the good woman, with the same density of 
 understanding, and fluency of speech . ' ' There's 
 Mr. Mansfield, our vicar, has a great portrait 
 hung in his dining-room which they t^l me 
 was done by an artist, and in London too ; 
 but to my taste, it is not half so beautiful, or 
 so much like as yours." 
 
 " You do not quite understand me yet," 
 said Allan again. " In plain words, Mrs. 
 Wells, I am not living on very comfortable 
 terms with my father, and I want to maintain 
 myself by taking likenesses." 
 
 " No, no, Mr. Allan," said the lady, in an 
 altered tone, and with a countenance that 
 expressed her want of power to give credit to 
 so great an improbability. " You don't mean 
 what you say, Mr. Allan. You are imposing 
 upon a simple woman. You will not — you 
 cannot go about taking money of such people 
 as these." 
 
THE IRON RULE. 257 
 
 " I will," said Allan, " if you will speak 
 a kind word for me, and explain my inten- 
 tions without betraying any thing about my 
 father." 
 
 As he said this, he held out his hand to 
 take leave, but the melancholy fall of his 
 voice,' and the tears, which in spite of his 
 resolution, rushed into his eyes, convinced, 
 and affected his friend so deeply, that she had 
 no language to express her sympathy and 
 compassion ; but stood holding his hand in 
 hers, and wiping her eyes with her apron, 
 until he made a second movement towards 
 the door. 
 
 "Stay," said she, "you must not leave us 
 yet. You have taken all our likenesses, but 
 if I had had the least idea — " 
 
 " Say not a word about that," interrupted 
 Allan, — "not a word I entreat you." 
 
 " But must you go about from house to 
 house, my poor fellow?" said the kind-hearted 
 woman. 
 
258 HOME, OR 
 
 " I must," replied Allan. 
 
 " Then come to us always in your way, and 
 take a bed when it suits you. And stay ; 
 another word before you go. If things should 
 grow worse between you and your father, and 
 you should want a home for a few weeks or 
 so, remember we are in your debt, Mr. Allan, 
 and even if we were not, there's the white 
 chamber always at liberty, and as my husband 
 says, one guest the more at a farmer's table 
 makes little difference." 
 
 Allan expressed the warmest gratitude for 
 the well-meant kindness of his worthy friend, 
 and after returning again to the painful part 
 of the subject, belonging exclusively to pecu- 
 niary affairs, and settling how Mrs. Wells 
 should introduce him to some of her friends, 
 on the footing of an artist, he returned home, 
 querying within himself, whether the difficul- 
 ties of money-making in the line he had 
 chosen, were not equal, at least, to those he 
 had encountered in his father's office. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 259 
 
 In setting forth with a clear understanding, 
 however, his way became more easy, and after 
 going through two or three families, and 
 weighing in his purse the actual and substan- 
 tial profits of his labour, he felt his prospects 
 brighten so much upon him, that he was in- 
 duced to impart the important secret of his 
 success to his sister Mary, whom he commis- 
 sioned to convey it to his friends at the 
 Abbey. 
 
 Great was the wonder expressed by all at 
 this unprecedented step of Allan's, but their 
 wonder was unmixed with blame ; and while 
 they lamented the adverse circumstances which 
 had consigned so bright a genius to such a 
 fate, they fervently wished the young artist 
 might be rewarded with success so brilliant 
 as to lead him into a higher and more intel- 
 lectual sphere of action. 
 
 Whatever we undertake of our own free 
 will, unapproved, and unaided by others, we 
 naturally pursue with firmness and avidity ; 
 
260 HOME, OR 
 
 and Allan went diligently and cheerfully to 
 his daily task, until a single luckless incident 
 cast a damp upon his new-born energy. 
 
 The secret of his meeting with so much 
 employment, consisted in the smallness of the 
 sum demanded as the price of his pictures. 
 These were consequently slight in themselves, 
 and of such a nature as to be easily effaced. 
 
 It happened that Cathleen and her brother 
 were visiting one day at a house where Allan 
 had been employed, and when the ladies left 
 the dinner table, and threw themselves upon 
 the mistress of the mansion and her neatly- 
 arranged drawing-room for all the entertain- 
 ment they could afford, the likenesses were 
 brought out, and exhibited for the amusement 
 of that class of critics who always point im- 
 mediately to the dark shadow below the nose, 
 exclaiming that the original of the picture has 
 no such mark as that upon his face. 
 
 Cathleen sat with heightened colour, listen- 
 ing to the stupid remarks of the company, 
 
THE IRON RULE. 261 
 
 who fingered the chalk lines, and rolled and 
 unrolled the paper, widening each time the 
 various rents made in the edges, and thus 
 helping to reduce the luckless specimens of 
 art to a very degraded and forlorn condition. 
 
 " Such things .'" said one young lady, yawn- 
 ing and throwing them contemptuously aside. 
 
 " I don't like the style — I never did," ex- 
 claimed another of higher pretensions. 
 
 " Pray how much might you give for 
 them ? " asked a third ; while the lady of the 
 house endeavoured to defend them by saying, 
 they were once very much like ; but that her 
 own neck had been dusted away by the house- 
 maid, and her naughty boy had rubbed off his 
 father's nose ; at which the company laughed 
 long and loud, as they held up the damaged 
 pictures the better to enjoy the joke. 
 
 What would Cathleen have given at that 
 moment to have been able to snatch away the 
 portraits unseen, and leaving the stated price 
 behind her, to have turned her back upon that 
 
262 HOME, OR 
 
 house for ever ! But fearing to commit herself 
 by showing too deep an interest in the artist, 
 she curbed her haughty spirit, and determined, 
 if her persuasions had any power, that Allan 
 should expose himself no more to the vulgar 
 criticisms of such people. 
 
 Perhaps there never was a man of aspiring, 
 yet delicate mind, who could deliberately per- 
 sist in doing what the lady of his love con- 
 sidered as contemptible and degrading. If 
 there were, Allan Grey was not this man. 
 Cathleen had only to hint her objections to 
 his occupation, and it was relinquished with- 
 out one word of defence, or one expression of 
 regret ; for, rather than bring the faintest 
 blush of shame upon her cheek, what would 
 he not have sacrificed and suffered ? 
 
 Had Cathleen been as ready with another 
 plan of action, as she was with her objections 
 to this, the service done to Allan would have 
 been infinitely greater ; but it seems to be the 
 part of friendship merely to stop us in our 
 
THE IRON RULE. 263 
 
 sanguine career, instead of pointing out a safer 
 or more eligible course. 
 
 " You have other talents," argued the inex- 
 perienced girl, intent only upon escaping a 
 repetition of her recent pain — " you have 
 other talents capable of being exercised in a 
 nobler sphere. Your poetry is beyond my 
 praise. I never read the least fragment of 
 yours without feeling that you were born to a 
 glorious destiny, which nothing but your own 
 blindness to your extraordinary capability can 
 counteract." 
 
 And Allan, too deeply susceptible of praise 
 from such a source, suffered the latent ambi- 
 tion thus kindled in his bosom to hurry him 
 into a thousand delicious and bewildering vi- 
 sions of future fame — visions which, by hold- 
 ing them concealed within the sanctuary of his 
 own heart, he had no opportunity of examining 
 by a broad and certain light, or comparing 
 with the actual experience of others. 
 
 Of all the diseases to which the human mind 
 
264 HOME, OR 
 
 is liable, a silent enthusiasm is the most in- 
 curable. Those visionaries who disclose the 
 scheme of their own projected absurdities to 
 others, however impetuous the current of their 
 feelings may be, or however dense their own 
 faculties of perception, are almost sure to find 
 a check and a cure in the reception their con- 
 fidence meets with from the world ; but those 
 who cherish their favourite designs in secret, 
 seldom fail to carry them into execution, ei- 
 ther for evil or for good. 
 
 And now Allan paced, with fresh delight, 
 the romantic paths around his father's dwel- 
 lino-, and traced the verdant banks of a smooth 
 river that glided past the Abbey, reflecting in 
 its clear unruffled bosom the deep dark shadow 
 of tlie ivied walls, and the light that glanced 
 through the turret windows, and shot athwart 
 the surrounding gloom. Upon this river, Te- 
 rence kept a small pleasure boat, in which 
 Allan used to sail listlessly with the stream, 
 weaving such lays of love and sadness, as 
 
THE IRON RULE. 265 
 
 could not, he thought, be cast upon the world 
 in vain : for, when he repeated them to his 
 sister Mary, and then, with gentler voice, to 
 Cathleen, they used to listen with enraptured 
 attention, while tears from the eyes he loved 
 best, attested the pathos of his muse. Even 
 Terence would keep silence during the recital, 
 and all learned to look ardently forward to a 
 time when their heartfelt admiration would be 
 confirmed by the applause of the public. 
 
 In the mean time, Mary was making pre- 
 parations for the return of both her sisters. 
 Harriet, who, on leaving school, had gone to 
 pay a visit to her aunt, living in a small county 
 town, was become so great a favourite, as al- 
 most to be adopted as her own child, and, con- 
 sequently, her return to her father's house was 
 less as a resident than a guest ; while Ellen, 
 whose stay with Mrs. Lee had been prolonged 
 from time to time, came at last, at the earnest 
 entreaty of her sister Mary, to cheer the soli- 
 tude of her home. 
 
 VOL. I. N 
 
266 HOME, OR 
 
 Christmas was the time of meeting, and Mary 
 did her best to warm the cheerless hospitality 
 of Welbourne House into something like com- 
 fort. " If my father would but go from home 
 for one day,*' she thought, " how happy we 
 might all be ;" and her wishes were more than 
 realized, for he went from home and was ab- 
 sent for two entire days and nights, on one 
 of which Terence and his sister were to be 
 guests at the Hall — on the other, the whole 
 party were to assemble at the Abbey. 
 
 Harriet arrived some days before her sister, 
 unchanged, except in manners and appearance. 
 Still thoughtless, wild, extravagant, and some- 
 times pert, she had assumed, in exchanging 
 her girlish frock for a fashionable dress, the 
 ease and gaiety of a woman of the world ; while 
 her graceful form, light movements, and hear- 
 ty, but still not vulgar laugh, bright eyes, and 
 sunny hair, lent to her whole character a sort 
 of fascination almost as powerful as that of 
 beauty. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 267 
 
 Free as Mary was, and ever had been, from 
 the taint of selfishness or envy, she could not 
 look upon her sister Harriet without an ideal 
 connexion between her and Terence, accom- 
 panied with a flash of secret pain, for which 
 she chid herself as often as it occurred. 
 
 They met like friends who have only been 
 separated for a day. Their former familiarity 
 and their old jests were renewed ; and Mary, 
 who was ignorant how seldom minds of this 
 character are deeply interested in each other, 
 began to think, that in cultivating the happi- 
 ness of others, she must make a greater sacri- 
 fice than she had anticipated of her own. She 
 was, however, entirely relieved from her secret 
 apprehensions by finding, that while Terence 
 always selected Harriet to dance with, and 
 addressed his puns and witticisms to her ear, 
 his serious attentions were directed to herself, 
 with the same pointed delicacy and kindness 
 as ever ; and that while he exchanged with her 
 sister the loud laugh and the quick repartee, 
 
 N 2 
 
268 HOME, OR 
 
 he spoke to her in those grave low tones, ac- 
 cording best with the language of affection. 
 
 It was not until the eve of the first day of 
 freedom and festivity, that Ellen Grey was 
 expected. A deep snow lay on the ground, and 
 though the wind blew sharply from the north, 
 Mary threw open the window so often to listen 
 to the sound of carriage wheels, that Terence, 
 who was their guest that evening, begged she 
 would allow her sister to approach without 
 sacrificing their lives in honour of her arrival. 
 
 " She comes at last!" exclaimed Mary, 
 with exultation, as the deep roll of a carriage 
 was heard upon the bridge. " Terence, you 
 must go with me to meet her," and she seized 
 his reluctant arm ; for the sharp frosty air, 
 and the remembrance of Mary's youngest 
 sister, were neither of them very stimulating 
 to the gallantry of the Irishman. 
 
 It was a clear moonlight night — so clear, as 
 to render the outline of every object as dis- 
 tinct as at noonday. Terence threw open the 
 
THE IRON RULE. 269 
 
 door of the chaise, more hnpatient to return 
 to the warm fire than to embrace the occu- 
 pant ; yet he did extend his arms with the 
 familiarity of a brother, for the recollection of 
 the many kisses he had pressed upon the cheek 
 of little Ellen Grey, rendered her an object of 
 affection, if not of interest. What, then, was 
 his surprise, to behold the tall figure of one, 
 whom he believed to be a stranger, rising 
 from the seat. He drew" back, and a sweet 
 voice exclaimed, in softly modulated accents, 
 ** Mary, I am delighted to see you. Mr, 
 Malone, I hope your sister is better ; I pro- 
 mise myself great pleasure from cultivating 
 her acquaintance." 
 
 Terence bowed, and thanked her ; and after 
 asking Mary in a whisper if this was really 
 Ellen, offered his arm to conduct her into the 
 house. 
 
 The young traveller was soon led to the 
 fire, and as shawls, and cloaks, and tippets 
 were removed one after another, a tall well- 
 
270 HOME, OR 
 
 formed and commanding figure stood before 
 them, to which they felt it almost impossible 
 to assign the name of Ellen Grey. 
 
 To see her face distinctly had already be- 
 come an object of intense curiosity to Terence, 
 and his anxiety was not long before it met 
 with its reward. 
 
 The beauty of the welcome stranger was of 
 a kind that needed no preparation from the 
 toilet to render it presentable. Carelessly 
 throwing aside her bonnet, she lightly shook 
 her auburn ringlets, and parting them upon 
 her forehead with her small white hand, dis- 
 played a face whose uncommon loveliness 
 struck the beholders with silent admiration. 
 
 " Upon my word," exclaimed Harriet, after 
 Mary had led Ellen from the room, " this 
 sister of ours is a beautiful creature. What 
 think you, Terence ?" 
 
 " I perfectly agree with you," was the 
 laconic reply. 
 
 " Polished manners, too, almost equal to 
 
THE IRON RULE. 271 
 
 my own and Mary's. What is your opinion, 
 Mr. Malone ?" 
 
 '' I should say, superior, to one, at least." 
 
 *' To Mary's, of course. But where can 
 she have got that sweet voice, and the dimples 
 that play about her mouth ?" 
 
 ** By robbing her sister Harriet." 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Malone, for your extra- 
 ordinary gallantry. But come, talk to me 
 like yourself. You are as cold and sarcastic 
 as my father, just at the time when I should 
 have expected a burst of your genuine Irish 
 eloquence. Why, you do not praise Ellen's 
 beauty with half the warmth I have known 
 you bestow on my sister Mary." 
 
 " To me, Mary is both beautiful and good ; 
 Ellen is yet only beautiful." 
 
 *' Then when Ellen is good to you, and 
 makes you cough medicines and comforters, 
 you will love her better than Mary?" 
 
 " I do not suppose she ever will; it is too 
 early to form an opinion from mere appear- 
 
272 HOME, OR 
 
 ance, but Ellen Grey does not look to me like 
 one of whom I could ever ask a kindness." 
 
 " But you would be the more grateful for 
 a kindness granted without asking?" 
 
 " I do not know that, either." 
 
 " Come, Terence, you are acting my father 
 still ; I cannot bear to hear you talk in this 
 dry cold manner. Now that there is no mak- 
 ing comparisons with Ellen, tell me honestly, 
 whether you think Mary or me the best look- 
 ing." 
 
 " Harriet, if any other woman asked me 
 such a question, I should say it was from envy, 
 or coquetry; but you are too generous and 
 too good humoured, to feel pain, when the 
 truth is not altogether in your own favour, 
 I will, therefore, tell you candidly, that to 
 me there never was a countenance so beau- 
 tiful as your sister Mary's." 
 
 " What! with her pale cheeks, and those 
 bands of raven hair that lie upon her forehead 
 like a vestal virgin's ?" 
 
THE IRON RULE. 273 
 
 '^* It is her vestal purity that I admire so 
 much." 
 
 " Ah! now I understand you; you are 
 charmed with the variety of a character in 
 every way opposite to your own; and when 
 you are tired of contemplating in the mirror 
 the brilliance of your own wild eyes, you turn 
 with peculiar satisfaction to Mary's downcast 
 orbs." 
 
 " Perhaps you are right; but whatever the 
 cause may be, there is a power in such eyes 
 as Mary's, when she fixes them in earnest 
 meaning upon your face — a power to call forth 
 all that is true, and noble, and generous, in 
 your nature, and to shame out all the evil, 
 even from a heart like mine." 
 
 " What a pity Mary does not spend her life 
 in gazing on your face !" 
 
 " Harriet, you may jest as you will ; but if 
 I had disgraced myself before the world, I 
 would fly to Mary for protection, as the cri- 
 minals of old were wont to shelter themselves 
 
 n3 
 
274 HOME, OR 
 
 in the sanctuary — yet I would not meet her 
 eyes. I should be certain of forgiveness, be- 
 cause her benevolence is such as to extend to 
 the widest circle of human depravity ; but the 
 sanctity of such a mind condemns more pow- 
 erfully than the accumulated contempt of the 
 vulgar million." 
 
 Such were the genuine sentiments with 
 which Mary Grey inspired her friend ; and, 
 bound to her from childhood by the indisso- 
 luble bond of mutual sympathy, he had learned 
 to look upon her, as her character attained 
 greater maturity of principle and judgment, 
 almost as his guardian angel. By his personal 
 prowess and undaunted spirit he had protected 
 her when a young girl from insult and oppres- 
 sion, and since that time she had more than re- 
 warded him by watcliing over the eccentricities 
 of his wayward temper, and guarding his repu- 
 tation in the opinion of others, with that untir- 
 ing tenderness so especially characteristic of the 
 love of woman. Not that Terence was by any 
 
THE IRON RULE. 275 
 
 means such a character as Mary would have 
 held up for a pattern of perfection ; for, alas ! 
 how seldom do we love best w^hat we most 
 approve. It was sufficient for her condemna- 
 tion that he led a useless life, besides which 
 he had a thousand faults, all so clearly conspi- 
 cuous to her discriminating eye, that one of 
 the great objects of her life seemed to be to 
 conceal them from others. 
 
 It is idle to say that personal appearance 
 has little to do with our attachments. We 
 leave it for philosophers to explain by what pro- 
 cess red hair is converted into auburn, green 
 eyes into blue, and a slight spinal curve into 
 the line of beauty ; but unquestionably either 
 a priori, or a posteriori, personal appearance 
 is of unspeakable importance ; for never was 
 the sentiment of love conceived within the 
 human mind, without a real or ideal sense of 
 beauty, or if not of beauty literally speaking, 
 of an agreeable peculiarity of form and fea- 
 ture — of something surrounding one particu- 
 
276 HOME, OR 
 
 lar form as with a halo of light, separating it 
 from all the world, and rendering it supremely 
 admirable in its distinctness, if not in its co- 
 louring and symmetry. 
 
 Terence Malone had the tall agile figure 
 which we naturally associate with skill and 
 grace in all manly exercises. He had a broad 
 open forehead, closely shaded with bright jetty 
 curls, and eyes that looked from beneath their 
 long dark lashes, like the sun in his noonday 
 radiance, when he bursts from behind a dense 
 and gloomy cloud ; with a voice whose full 
 clear tones were a natural and constant me- 
 lody, and a laugh that might have awakened 
 the spirit of merriment in the breast of a hoary 
 sibyl. Besides which he was so active, so de- 
 cided, and so prompt in his movements from 
 one trifling occupation to another, that an air 
 of manliness, and sometimes of importance, 
 was imparted to his character, not sufficiently 
 supported by the objects for which he lived. 
 As an adventurer, a sailor, or a military 
 
THE IRON RULE. 277 
 
 commander, he would have been distinguished 
 for his enterprise and valour ; but immured as 
 he was in the solitude of a secluded mansion, 
 alike without useful occupation or laudable 
 ambition, he was loved and valued for what he 
 might have been, rather than for what he was ; 
 and Mary, whose partial fancy was perpetually 
 placing him in situations more congenial to 
 his nature, blamed his ill-judged education 
 for thwarting his higher destiny. And since, 
 with all her zeal to assist and serve, she could 
 not point out any specific plan by which that 
 destiny might be fulfilled, she was satisfied to 
 pity, and possess him still. For it needs a 
 highly sublime and spiritual attachment to 
 devise schemes for depriving us, perhaps for 
 ever, of the friends we love best ; and more 
 experienced moralists than Mary Grey have 
 stretched their judgments a little to reconcile 
 a case for its agreeableness, rather than its 
 ultimate utility. 
 
 Thus associated as they had been from their 
 
278 HOME, OR 
 
 childhood, it would scarcely be possible to 
 imagine a stronger bond of intimacy, than that 
 existing between Terence and Mary; and if in 
 her mind the intimacy partook more of ten- 
 derness, while it had the same character of 
 strength, it was partly from her feminine na- 
 ture, and partly from the many cold blights 
 her childhood had received, having driven her 
 affections to find their overflow in one distinct 
 and partial channel . 
 
 It is the young warm hearts, cherished in a 
 genial atmosphere, that by learning to love all 
 things lovely and estimable in themselves, with- 
 out fear, and without reserve, find copious out- 
 lets for the flow of natural aff'ection ; those who 
 have been contracted in their sphere of action, 
 and bound in by harsh and unrelenting^ se- 
 verity, shrinking with terror from the open 
 and salutary exercise of their feelings, learn to 
 love in secret, and with a fervency that never 
 yet was the accompaniment of human happi- 
 ness. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 279 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Those who retain the warmth of their feel- 
 ings under circumstances of restraint and un- 
 natural severity, sometimes enjoy, with intense 
 emotion, the few brief moments of unreserved 
 and social intercourse which their lives afford. 
 Thus the party atWelbourne House met around 
 a blazing hearth, with hearts whose unwonted 
 freedom seemed sufficient of itself to constitute 
 them happy. 
 
 Cathleen was present, for her health was still 
 such as to permit her the indulgence of society, 
 while its delicacy heightened the interest 
 which her beauty, her refinement, her accom- 
 plishments, and her gentle manners diffused 
 
280 HOME, OR 
 
 around her ; and she sat within the cheerful 
 circle, so fondly cherished, so guarded, and so 
 beloved by all, as to look almost like the idol 
 to whom their devotions were addressed. 
 
 Ellen Grey was a beauty of a totally differ- 
 ent character ; and if she excited less tender- 
 ness, she commanded more admiration. Not 
 that her personal loveliness alone would have 
 done this, but she had a sweet voice, a winning 
 smile, with polished and persuasive manners, 
 that won insensibly upon those around her ; 
 and Mary gazed upon her with the pride and 
 fondness of a mother, whose heart has been 
 oppressed with anxiety for one beloved object, 
 and who meets at last with the full repayment 
 of her solicitude — the entire fulfilment of her 
 warmest wishes. 
 
 " We are all very happy," said Harriet, 
 drawing in her chair, and stirring the fire for 
 the twentieth time ; " almost too happy to be 
 interesting. What say you, Allan, to a dash 
 of melancholy amongst our felicity : for you sit 
 
THE IRON RULE. 281 
 
 in the sunshine of those golden tresses, as if 
 you anticipated neither cloud nor twilight." 
 
 " If you wish for melancholy, Harriet, it is 
 a thousand pities you should not be gratified. 
 For my part, I have a little too much of it 
 sometimes." 
 
 " I have hardly hit upon the right word," 
 continued Harriet ; " melancholy is too tame, 
 too monotonous, for my taste. I want some- 
 thing to create tremors, and palpitations, 
 and all that sort of thing — something that 
 would seem to mingle in its contradictious 
 elements, the storm that rages without, and 
 the quiet comfort that glows within. Suppose 
 you and I, Terence, were to get up a little love 
 for each other, and hang our heads and look 
 pensive, just for variety." 
 
 " Ah, Harriet," replied Terence, " I should 
 have been in love with you long since, if I 
 had suspected you of possessing a heart." 
 
 Harriet fixed her eyes upon the blazing fire, 
 and after looking serious for the space of one 
 
282 HOME, OR 
 
 entire minute, sighed deeply, and then, turning 
 with a smile to Terence, addressed him in her 
 wonted manner. %** 
 
 *' Terence, if you had lived beneath my fa- 
 ther's roof, you would have been glad, like 
 me, to be exempt from that inconvenient ap- 
 pendage to your person. If hearts had never 
 been invented, would Mary look so prema- 
 turely grave ? would Allan sigh his soul away 
 in sonnets ? would Cathleen be so doted 
 upon that we (or rather you) tremble if the 
 north wind does but touch her cheek? Or 
 would Ellen be in danger of losing her fresh 
 bright bloom ? No, Terence, you and I (for 
 I will have companionship in my deficiency) 
 are infinitely safer without hearts. We shall 
 sit in our easy chairs, watching the ravages of 
 sensibility upon more fragile forms, and wel- 
 come old age without a wrinkle and without 
 a care." 
 
 Terence had followed her remarks from one 
 individual to another ; and when she threat- 
 
THE IRON RULE. 283 
 
 ened the young bright bloom of Ellen, his eye 
 dwelt for a moment upon the lovely girl, with 
 an interest which Mary could not but observe ; 
 while she inwardly thanked him for feeling so 
 kindly, and so much as she did, for her sister. 
 
 And thus the evening passed away, in the 
 mutual intercourse of congenial minds ; nor 
 did the party separate until Allan and Cathleen 
 had sung together some of Ireland's charmed 
 lays, and given the votive offering of two sin- 
 gularly sweet and harmonious voices, to the 
 bard, whose genius is so peculiarly calculated 
 for weaving the chain of sympathy between 
 young hearts, and bathing them in floods of 
 light — of happiness — of tears. 
 
 The two days of perfect cordiality and 
 freedom were enjoyed by the young party at 
 Welbourne House with an avidity scarcely to 
 be understood by those whose pleasures have 
 been dealt out to them with a more liberal 
 hand. On the following morning Stephen 
 Grey returned, and his presence brought its 
 
284 HOME, OR 
 
 usual accompaniment of silence and restraint. 
 It is scarcely possible that actual fear should 
 continue to prevail over minds whose matu- 
 rity had necessarily produced a degree of 
 mental independence ; but there were recol- 
 lections and associations which spread around 
 them a kind of imaginary pall, and they 
 shrunk from exposing their sentiments and 
 feelings to one, who, with a predisposition to 
 behold them in an unfavourable light, was 
 wholly incapable of understanding from what 
 class of feelings they arose. 
 
 "Home is just what it always was," said 
 Harriet to her sister Mary. " I came back 
 with a strong determination not to fear my 
 father, but the very sound of his step in the 
 hall makes my spirit sink within me, and I 
 begin immediately to ask myself what I am 
 doing, or what I have done, that he can pos- 
 sibly find fault with." 
 
 "And yet he is not often angry with us 
 now," said Mary. 
 
THE IRON RULE. 285 
 
 *' No," replied her sister, "but which of us 
 can recollect the time when he noticed any 
 little sacrifice we made to please him, or 
 rewarded us with one expression of genuine 
 pleasure when we did our best ? To escape his 
 anger was the highest felicity to which we 
 ever aspired, and I feel that if I lived at home, 
 I should just deceive, and act OA^er again my 
 former part." 
 
 " But are you happy with my aunt, Har- 
 riet?" 
 
 " Yes, happy in a certain way. She is ex- 
 tremely generous, and I spend her money 
 delightfully ; but I confess I am sometimes 
 a little tired of her common-place remarks, 
 and of the vulgar ambition that has no higher 
 aim than to vie with the mayor's wife in furni- 
 ture and dress." 
 
 ' ' And you can really reconcile yourself to 
 this kind of life, Harriet?" 
 
 " Why, where else can I live ? Not at 
 home, most assuredly ; for if my father did not 
 
286 HOME, OR 
 
 actually turn me out of doors, I could never 
 confine my expenditure to his yearly allow- 
 ance, or exist within the narrow limits of his 
 household rules. Sometimes I think very 
 seriously of marrying, if I had but the good 
 fortune to captivate a man of ample means. 
 What do you say to this plan of escape, Mary? 
 Would you accept the proposals of a good- 
 natured man, who could maintain you in 
 affluence ?" 
 
 *' I would rather starve than marry a man 
 I could not love." 
 
 " Ah ! that is all because you have a heart. 
 It does very well for you to talk in this way, 
 and would sound very fine in one of Allan's 
 books ; but with me, you know, the case is 
 quite different." 
 
 "There is such a thing, Harriet, as finding 
 out you have a heart when it is too late." 
 
 " That is another of your romantic notions. 
 Depend upon it, Mary, hearts do not spring 
 up like seeds which can remain hid in the 
 
THE IRON RULE. 287 
 
 earth, until favouring circumstances promote 
 their growth. Besides, Terence says I have 
 no heart, and I think, had I possessed one, I 
 should almost have loved him too well, for he 
 is a handsome noble-hearted fellow. Is he not, 
 Mary?" 
 
 " He is, indeed, good-hearted." 
 
 "And not that only. There is something 
 about him which always makes one feel his 
 presence when he is near, and a sensible loss 
 when he goes away. What is it, do you think, 
 Mary?" 
 
 All this was said with an arch smile, and a 
 searching look, that brought the deepest crim- 
 son into Mary's face ; and feeling that she had 
 no refuge from her sister's raillery, she freely 
 joined her laugh, and then resumed the all- 
 important subject of their former conversation ; 
 for the remarks so heedlessly let fall by Har- 
 riet, had awakened her fears lest she might be 
 induced to act upon the liberal sentiments she 
 maintained in reference to the duties of mar- 
 riage . 
 
288 HOME, OR 
 
 " But you do not seriously mean what you 
 say ? " she gravely inquired of her sister. ' ' You 
 do not mean that you could really marry for 
 the sake of an establishment?" 
 
 " Why the truth is this," replied Harriet. 
 " My aunt is one of those unscrupulous people, 
 who can freely talk in one's presence about 
 the advantage of getting one off — I think that 
 is the favourite expression with such people." 
 
 "It is an expression," replied Mary, with 
 some indignation, " that always makes me 
 shrink within myself, and feel, even when I 
 hear it applied to others, as if not only my 
 own family, but the world at large, were 
 grudging me what they consider as the bread 
 of idleness. Is it not enough that women are 
 subjected, from the cradle to the grave, to as 
 many of the ills of life as their weakness is 
 able to sustain, but they must be perpetually 
 reminded that they hang as a burden upon 
 society, until one individual is bound by the 
 law of the land to provide them food and 
 clothing for life !" 
 
THE IRON RULE. 289 
 
 *' Well, this is the only thing that troubles 
 me. My aunt is generous and kind, but her 
 kindness is perpetually anticipating the future ; 
 and though she will not hear of my living at 
 home, where she knows I am not happy, she 
 wants the delicacy to conceal the relief it will 
 be to her when I am well provided for." 
 
 " Come back and live with us then, dear 
 Harriet. I cannot bear that you should be ex- 
 posed to such unfeeling remarks." 
 
 *' No, Mary, it is easier for me to bear the 
 plain speaking of such people, than the cold 
 averted eye of a father who does not love me." 
 
 " But he does love you in his heart, Har- 
 riet." 
 
 " You say right. In his heart only ; for 1 
 should be at a loss to discover it in his actions." 
 
 " But Allan loves you, and Ellen, and 
 myself. — If you will but come back, we Avill 
 all endeavour to made your home more happy." 
 
 " Between ourselves, Mary, I doubt whether 
 this charming sister of ours has much love 
 
 VOL. I. o 
 
290 HOME, OR 
 
 to spare for any one. She is so beautiful, and 
 smiles and speaks so sweetly, that we are all 
 captivated ; but show me the instance in which 
 she has studied to make others happy, unless 
 by smiling upon them. I do not speak for 
 myself. She owes me nothing, except perhaps 
 a box on the ear, for the tyranny exercised 
 over her childhood ; but she is not what she 
 ought to be to you. Indeed, Mary, she is not." 
 
 " You are very severe, Harriet. She has 
 been spoiled by my over indulgence, but she 
 is — she must be affectionate." 
 
 " Yes, if affection consists in embraces and 
 pretty speeches, I grant that she is ; but for 
 my own part, rather than fold my arms around 
 your neck and kiss you as she does, I would 
 help you sometimes to sew for my father and 
 brothers, or stay at home to receive my father 
 in the evening, while you walked out with 
 Terence. You smile, Mary, because you think 
 I am condemning myself, as well as Ellen. 
 To the charge of neglect, and want of conside- 
 
THE IRON RULE. 291 
 
 ration for you, I plead guilty ; but not to that 
 of 'pretended affection. No, Mary, when that 
 precious seed grows up within me, which you 
 sentimental people call a heart, I will prove 
 my affection by real services, not by mere 
 expressions of tenderness and love." 
 
 It was indeed but too true as Harriet had 
 remarked, Ellen Grey was neither capable of 
 feeling in herself, or of appreciating in others, 
 those deep emotions out of which arise the 
 most noble and disinterested actions. Her 
 infancy had been so fondly cherished, that she 
 had learned to exercise without the reserve of 
 some other members of her family, all the 
 outward attributes of affection ; and while they 
 imparted an interesting and delightful softness 
 to her manners, they served to conceal the 
 void that lay beneath. 
 
 Something of this kind had been hinted at 
 by Catherine Lee in her letters to Mary. 
 
 " Were I," said she, " to assume the un- 
 friendly office of pointing out Ellen's faults, I 
 
 o2 
 
292 HOME, OR 
 
 should certainly be at a loss what to say ; yet 
 I cannot think that I should do my duty to 
 my dearest friend, without damping her ardent 
 expectations, by warning her that Ellen is not 
 like herself ; and that she may look in vain to 
 this beloved sister, for the glowing sympathy, 
 the deep interest, and the cordial kindness, 
 that sweeten all our domestic duties." 
 
 Mary dwelt upon this letter, read it again 
 and again, and then committed it to the 
 flames, persuading herself that it was impos- 
 sible there should be any deficiency in the 
 heart of her favourite sister ; but when Har- 
 riet again left them, and the young party was 
 divided into two couples, and one who walked or 
 sat alone, Mary could not help feeling that she 
 was that lonely one much more frequently than 
 either Cathleen or Ellen ; yet she blamed no 
 one — envied no one, but satisfied herself with 
 thinking that it was right it should be so ; and 
 when the two cheerful couples wandered away 
 for their evening walk, she would take her 
 
THE IRON RULE. 293 
 
 work and sit beside her father, happy if she 
 could prevent his feeling the loneliness with 
 which her own heart was oppressed. 
 
 There is nothing that makes us so kindly 
 disposed to others, as the mingling of a slight 
 degree of pain with our own experience ; and 
 when we can do nothing to lighten our own load 
 of care, the noble and generous mind will find 
 fresh stimulus in its sufferings for seeking to 
 lighten that of others. 
 
 As time passed on, however, Mary became 
 more reconciled to her peculiar situation. 
 Perhaps it was, that driven from one post of 
 confidence to another, she learned to extract 
 consolation from sources unknown before, and 
 thus pleased herself for awhile with their 
 novelty, unconscious that the floods were gain- 
 ing upon her, and that, of these resources, she 
 might soon be driven to the last. If, however, 
 her individual enjoyments were less numerous 
 than before, they became daily more intense. 
 Terence had lost his regular spirits, and was 
 
294 HOME, OR 
 
 no longer like himself. Subject to alternate 
 bursts of merriment and fits of sadness, he 
 seemed more dependent than ever upon Mary, 
 and would sometimes tear himself away from 
 other society to walk or sit with her alone, as 
 if his heart was labouring with some hidden 
 grief, which he longed to communicate, but 
 knew not how. 
 
 Let no man despair of winning a woman's 
 love, if with a moderate degree of liking, he 
 can make her believe that she is the only 
 human being in whom it is possible for him 
 freely and fully to confide — the one congenial 
 spirit who can appreciate the lights and 
 shadows of his own character — the guardian 
 angel commissioned with an especial embassy 
 to watch over him for good. 
 
 Mary knew that whatever were the superior 
 attractions of others, she was, as far as a 
 weak and humble-minded woman might be, 
 this confidant to Terence ; and therefore she 
 could leave him cheerfully to the society that 
 
THE IRON RULE. 295 
 
 was suited to his happier moments, secure 
 that he would fly to her when his heart was 
 overpowered with grief; and though ignorant 
 of the precise nature of the cares which 
 preyed upon him, it was not difficult to wait 
 in patience for the hour of farther explanation 
 while certain that that hour would be shared 
 with her alone. 
 
 Sometimes Mary concluded it must be 
 troubles of a pecuniary nature that weighed 
 down his joyous spirit ; but he had ever 
 treated money with a childish recklessness, 
 and there was little additional cause for caring 
 for it now. Sometimes she thought it must 
 be the situation of his sister, who, instead of 
 gaining strength with the advance of summer, 
 grew more and more delicate, and after re- 
 signing first one indulgence, and then another, 
 was at length obliged to confine herself to 
 the circle of the Abbey garden for her daily 
 exercise. But if this was the grief to which 
 Terence yielded, why did he not name it 
 
296 HOME, OR 
 
 freely, instead of alluding mysteriously to 
 something he could not, dared not, disclose? 
 
 At last Mary's conjectures settled into the 
 conviction that his secret cause of anxiety 
 must be entirely of a pecuniary nature ; and 
 as such she felt a natural repugnance to ex- 
 torting a confidence that was not freely 
 granted ; and as Terence now held frequent 
 communication with his lawyers, and often 
 walked to the neighbouring village in order 
 that he might receive his expected letters half 
 an hour earlier, her increasing suspicions 
 received their final confirmation, by his de- 
 claring his intention of setting out immedi- 
 ately for London, that he might ascertain 
 with greater certainty the real state of his 
 affairs. 
 
 It was a strange sensation to Mary to be 
 thus suddenly deprived of the untiring society 
 of one who had J^een so uniformly -friendly 
 and familiar as Terence ; and she felt for the 
 first time in her life how tremendous a void 
 
THE IRON RULE. 297 
 
 his continued absence would create. Accus- 
 tomed as she had been to appeal to him in 
 every trifling emergency, to meet his cheerful 
 smile as regularly as she met the light of day, 
 and to welcome the glad tones of his voice, 
 as if they were the natural music of her own 
 imagination ; she now acknowledged to her- 
 self, but not without a blush of shame, how 
 entirely the charm of her existence depended 
 upon this beloved friend. Oppressed with 
 the painful apprehensions this new conviction 
 brought along with it, she turned her pensive 
 gaze towards the Abbey walls. They looked 
 vacant, and stripped of all their interest ; and 
 she met the bright dawn of each returning 
 morn, as if it only ushered in a blank and 
 wearisome day. 
 
 It was not long, however, that Mary had 
 to chide herself for this insensibility to present 
 things. Terence returned as abruptly and 
 impatiently as he had set out, and startled 
 Ellen almost into fits by entering the garden 
 
 o3 
 
298 HOME, OR 
 
 of the Hall after its sober proprietor had 
 retired to rest, and tapping gently at the 
 window of the little parlour the young people 
 used to call their own. 
 
 They knew the signal, and hastily throwing 
 open the sash, the next moment the welcome 
 visitant had bounded in ; and after having 
 embraced them both with the familiarity of a 
 brother, stood holding a hand of each, but 
 with a look of tenderness directed towards 
 Ellen, for which her alarm sufficiently accoun- 
 ted. 
 
 " Mary," said he, as soon as the object of 
 his solicitude had recovered from the shock, 
 " congratulate me upon my good fortune. I 
 cannot enter into particulars just now, but I 
 shall yet be an independent man !" 
 
 " What !" said Mary, " is this intricate aifair 
 at last concluded ?" 
 
 " No, not exactly signed and sealed. But 
 you must come to the Abbey to-morrow even- 
 ing, and I will tell you all I undei'stand about 
 
THE IRON RULE. 299 
 
 it. I have not seen either Cathleen or Allan 
 yet, but suppose I shall find them together, 
 like substance and shadow. Good night once 
 more. We shall all be happy yet !" 
 
 He accompanied these words with the pres- 
 sure of one fair hand — a pressure which the 
 other did not feel ; and then disappeared as 
 suddenly as he had come. 
 
 The next evening was one of unwonted en- 
 joyment to the whole party. It was not often 
 that Mary deserted her father on these occa- 
 sions, but the welcome return of Terence, and 
 the idea that he had some good tidings to 
 communicate, rendered the temptation too 
 strong even for her fortitude ; and though she 
 lingered last of all, and even poured out her 
 father's tea before she left him ; after she had 
 seen him draw his chair back to its accustomed 
 •place, take out his spectacles, and commence 
 the silent reading of a London newspaper, she 
 passed softly through the hall, and then pur- 
 sued her solitary way across the fields, perhaps 
 
300 HOME, OR 
 
 with more secret satisfaction then she had ever 
 felt before. 
 
 Terence sprung to meet her, from a sofa on 
 which he had been seated between Cathleen 
 and Ellen. He received her with his wonted 
 manner, for it was his custom never to permit 
 her to enter the room where he was, without 
 some respectful notice of her presence ; and 
 even in her father's house when she withdrew 
 from the cheerful circle to seat herself silently 
 and dutifully beside him, that he might not 
 feel alone or deserted by his children, Terence 
 used to follow her to the door, and would 
 sometimes detain her there, with earnest en- 
 treaties that she would soon return ; as if he 
 felt an absolute want of something, when he 
 heard and saw her not. 
 
 There was consequently nothing extraordi- 
 nary in his present welcome, unless Mary's 
 feelings made it so, or unless her few days' 
 want of his pointed and delicate attentions had 
 made them more valuable ; but certainly the 
 
THE IRON RULE, 301 
 
 idea did cross her mind that she had never 
 seen him look so handsome, or heard him 
 speak so kindly before ; and though he placed 
 her in the vacant chair that stood apart, his 
 conversation was addressed to her as if she 
 alone could fully understand his thoughts, and 
 appreciate his feelings. 
 
 In the course of the evening he explained 
 what were the circumstances that gave a 
 more auspicious character to the aspect of his 
 affairs, while he held in his hand a letter from 
 the potent pen of a distinguished counsellor, 
 strongly corroborating his hopes. And al- 
 though there was not one individual present 
 who understood more than he did himself of 
 the mazy intricacies of the law, they were all 
 so credulous of good — so eager to magnify 
 every favourable omen, that before they sepa- 
 rated for the night, their wishes had assumed 
 the nature of sanguine expectations, from the 
 fulfilment of which they seemed to be equally 
 anticipating happiness, regardless of all calcu- 
 lations upon their individual share. 
 
302 HOME, OR 
 
 As Stephen Grey was in the habit of closing 
 his doors at an early hour, and Cathleen too 
 looked pale and weary after the excitement of 
 a lengthened visit, Mary and her sister rose to 
 say good night, all the party agreeing that 
 they had seldom enjoyed an evening more 
 than this — so much does the glow of ardent 
 hope, when shared by those we love, exceed, in 
 the real enjoyment it produces, the exercise of 
 the most brilliant powei^ of conversation. 
 
 '' Allan," said Terence, as they left the 
 door, and trod upon the mossy turf, where 
 the clear calm moonlight lay like a silver 
 carpet, " you must take charge of your sister 
 Ellen to-night. I have a word for Mary's 
 private ear, which if it should prove more 
 than a monosyllable, may perhaps detain her 
 later than your father's hour of retiring. You 
 will therefore invent the best excuse you can, 
 and wait for her in the parlour until you hear 
 my signal at the window." 
 
 Mary knew not why this charge should 
 raise the glowing crimson, though unseen, 
 
THE IRON RULE. 303 
 
 to her cheeks, since Terence was addicted to 
 the trick of making- people feel awkward and 
 embarrassed ; and deeming it only one of his 
 idle and familiar jests, she prepared to follow 
 her brother and sister along the path to her 
 father's door. 
 
 *' Not that way," said Terence, gently taking 
 her hand in his, and leading her down to the 
 side of the river. 
 
 " It is only to behold this beautiful scene," 
 said Mary to herself; yet she trembled all 
 over, and a strange undefinable apprehension 
 filled her heart. 
 
 " Mary," said he, " you are the best friend 
 I have in the world ; " and he would have im- 
 printed a kiss upon her glowing cheek, but 
 the lateness of the hour, and the loneliness of 
 their situation, gave an air of impropriety to 
 his Irish gallantry, which Mary thought it 
 incumbent upon her to check. 
 
 '* Nay, do not shun me now," said Terence, 
 " when I am more in need than ever of that 
 
304 HOME, OR 
 
 confidence — that affection in which you your- 
 self have taught me to conclude." 
 
 Mary could not answer. She saw nothing — 
 heard nothing with distinctness. Shecarcely 
 even knew that she was standing by the side 
 of the man she loved best in the world, gazing 
 by moonlight on the bright surface of a gently 
 gliding river, where the willows dipped their 
 weeping branches, and raised a silvery margin 
 around the bed of their own deep shadows re- 
 flected in the silent wave. She scarcely knew 
 that she was clinging like a blind enthusiast 
 to one distinct and happy thought, which told 
 her that this beloved friend was about to whis- 
 per into her attentive ear a secret intimately 
 connected with his fate — perhaps with hers, but 
 sacred from all the world beside. She scarcely 
 knew whether duty bade her stay and listen, or 
 fly the imaginary dangers of this bewildering 
 scene. 
 
 " Mary," said Terence again, " you know 
 my situation — you know my heart ; but you 
 
THE IRON RULE. 305 
 
 are scarcely conscious of its capability of 
 loving. To you I have confided every secret 
 of my life but one. Yet that I think you 
 must have guessed." 
 
 Mary now drew her hand avray from the 
 arm on which she had been leaning, for she 
 trembled so violently, that she was fearful of 
 betraying her emotion. 
 
 Terence proceeded ; " You are cold and 
 distant with me to-night, Mary. What can 
 this altered manner mean? . Have you ever 
 loved me, or have I only deceived myself with 
 a bright and blissful dream ? " 
 
 '* You know my friendship for you, Terence 
 — what it has been , and ever will be in every 
 situation, and through every circumstance of 
 life." 
 
 *' Then prove it by granting, this night, 
 the greatest kindness you ever yet conferred 
 upon me." 
 
 " Proceed," said Mary, with a voice she 
 was scarcely able to command. 
 
 '* To you who know my heart so well, I 
 
306 HOME, OR 
 
 need not explain either the anxieties that per- 
 plex me every hour, or the anticipated lone- 
 liness that lies before me. You must know, 
 too, that a temperament like mine is liable to 
 form strong attachments ; and what, Mary," 
 he exclaimed, once more seizing her hand, " if 
 I have dared to love where there is the least 
 probability of a haj^py termination to my 
 wishes, where inborn prejudice plants an iron 
 barrier between me and hope, and where my 
 poverty is regarded as a crime, rather than a 
 misfortune — in short, Mary, for I must speak 
 decidedly to the point, where your iron-hearted 
 father would brand me as a madman, were I 
 even on my knees to ask the blessing of his 
 daughter's hand ! " 
 
 As Terence uttered the last words, he bent 
 his burning forehead upon Mary's shoulder, 
 and she heard no sound but the agonized and 
 convulsive sighs that choked his utterance. 
 
 Mary could not speak. She had no words 
 to express the mingled emotions which crowded 
 together, and oppressed her soul ; but she 
 
THE IRON RULE. 307 
 
 answered in the language of that soul, by a 
 slight and gentle pressure of the hand which 
 held her own. 
 
 As soon as Terence recovered his self-pos- 
 session, he went on. "The favour I have to 
 ask of you, Mary — the favour that will lay me 
 under a debt of everlasting gratitude, is that 
 you will intercede with your father on my 
 behalf. It would strike the death-blow to my 
 hopes at once, should I presume to speak, and 
 with Ellen it is a point of delicacy to be silent." 
 
 The hand which Terence held became cold 
 and motionless as marble, and Mary in another 
 moment would have sunk upon the ground, 
 but that the sudden reaction of her feelings 
 brought a blush of burning shame into her 
 ghastly cheeks — of shame, that she had not 
 rightly interpreted the meaning of her friend 
 — shame, that she might possibly have betrayed 
 the strange hallucination of her mind — and 
 shame, that she had dared to dream of a feli- 
 city allotted to another. 
 
 We do not — we cannot, in one moment 
 
308 ^ HOME, OR 
 
 arrive at a full conviction of the severity of 
 the blow which has struck the root of our 
 fondest hopes. There are innumerable func- 
 tions of the mind that must have time to ope- 
 rate — to bring in their fuel to the fire of 
 destruction, before we can know the extent of 
 our calamity; and ere the crowning measurejs 
 added to our draught of bitterness, we often 
 experience a power to act with firmness and 
 decision, which astonishes us on after- thought, 
 when we retire into our own chambers, and 
 call upon the very walls to pity us. 
 
 Mary was fully capable of speaking, if not 
 of feeling, all which duty and strict propriety 
 required in this moment of mysterious self- 
 possession ; and she answered distinctly, 
 "What is it you ask of me, Terence? Tell 
 me all, and I will do my best to serve you." 
 
 Fortunately for Mary, her companion had 
 been too much absorbed by his own emotions 
 to observe any thing extraordinary in her 
 manner. He had thought her less affectionate 
 — less warmly interested in his happiness than 
 
THE IRON RULE. 309 
 
 usual ; but sucli was his entire reliance upon 
 her sisterly regard, that the idea never for one 
 moment flitted across his mind, that Mary 
 could be less sanguine than himself in pro- 
 moting his union with her sister. 
 
 "Tell me," said she again with firm, though 
 hurried voice, *' in what way you wish me to 
 act. Ellen — my sister, is of course aware of 
 your having communicated with me on this 
 subject." 
 
 " It was by her own proposition that I de- 
 tained you here to-night. But how you can 
 proceed so as to soften your father's prejudices 
 in my favour, is for you, if for any one on 
 earth, to decide. Something may perhaps be 
 done by explaining to him the result of my 
 late journey to town;" and here Terence 
 entered into a circumstantial detail of his 
 transactions with the gentlemen of the law, 
 appealing to his mute companion at the close 
 of every sentence, to know whether she under- 
 stood him. 
 
 " Perfectly," was the uniform and prompt 
 
310 - HOME. 
 
 reply, until nothing farther remained to be 
 explained ; when Terence placed the important 
 letter in Mary's hand, and led her to her 
 father's door. 
 
 "Mary!" exclaimed Allan, when he met 
 his sister with the lamp in his hand, " What 
 has happened to you ?" 
 
 " Nothing," said Mary, shivering, " but the 
 air is damp and cold, and we have staid too 
 long by the river side." 
 
 Allan was not satisfied, yet, fearing to pur- 
 sue the subject too far, he extended his hand 
 to his sister, who, after pressing upon his fore- 
 head her farewell kiss, retired in silence to 
 her own chamber. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
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 " There is not in the whole circle of English literature, a single 
 writer, whose works, including his admirable Correspondence, de- 
 serve to be so generally infused, if we may be permitted the expres- 
 sion, into society, as those of Cowper." — Atlas. 
 
 " This is the onlj^ edition which contains the whole of Cowper's 
 Correspondence, a collection of the most beautiful and interesting 
 Letters ever given to the world." — Tail's Magazine. 
 
 " We have no doubt that the sale of this work will exceed that of 
 any modem publication." — Sun. 
 
 " If ever a work of the kind was formed for universal popularity, 
 it is the present." — Bell's Messenger. 
 
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